
\ iff ImI 








Class 3 V : _ 

Book 

Copyright W . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



CAIN'S WIFE 

AND 

OTHER ADDRESSES 

BY 

By Rev. French E. Oliver, D.D. 



AUTHOR OF 

" How Shall We Escape?" 

" Excuses Answered." 

Oliver's " Songs of Deliverance/' 



International Copyright 

1909 
FRENCH E. OLIVER. 



FRENCH E. OLIVER, Publisher 
4330 Harrison Street, Kansas City, Missouri. 



■ : ' 



(\°\ 



' 



V ^ 



®H^t 



C!a. A, 
JUL 



15 T909 




This Book is affectionately inscribed 
to my Wife, whose wealth of love and 
beautiful life continually charm me. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

1 Cain's Wife 7 

2 The Love of God 24 

3 Noah's Ark 34 

4 The Incarnation 52 

5 The Shadow Life 65 

6 The Jesus Trail 75 

7 Fishers of Men 86 

8 The Book of Life 94 

9 God's Mountains 105 

10 Seven Pillars 115 

1 1 Moral Archeology 126 

12 Where Fell Your Ax-Head? 139 

1 3 Captain Naaman, the Leper 1 52 

14 Seven Devils 174 

1 5 Compromise Never ! 189 

16 The Devil's Incubators 201 

17 The Blood of Souls 238 



CAIN'S WIFE. j 

Chapter I. 
CAIN'S WIFE. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver, 

My Scripture lesson to-night, which is Genesis 4:1 to 1 7, 
deals with the romance and tragedy of Eden. God created 
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, which must have been, 
from all accounts, a veritable suburb of Heaven. Aurora must 
have played with all Nature's ineffable beauty in that glorious 
tpot. There the glory of God was full-orbed and transcendent. 
It seems incredible that man, being placed in such marvelous 
surroundings, could have become despicable, disobedient, and 
degraded. Some people tell me that all they need is better 
environment. That is nonsense ! Adam and Eve had the best 
environment that the world has ever known, and the Devil pois- 
oned the atmosphere with Hell's foul odors, and they fell from 
the height of purity to the depths of impurity ; from God's light 
to death's darkness. 

My friend, Senator Robert L. Taylor, of Tennessee, 
painted a picture of the Garden of Eden in my presence 
some years ago, which I will never forget. He said: "It 
might have been a dream of God glowing with ineffable 
beauty, rimmed about with the blue mountains from whose 
moss-covered peaks a thousand glassy streams spread out in 
mid air and were like ten thousand bridal veils catching a 
thousand rainbows from the sun: archipelagos of gorgeous 
coloring flecked with perennial green, where grape-vines stag- 
gered from tree to tree drunk with the nectar of their own 
clusters; where peach and plum and blood-red cherries, and 
every kind of berry bending bough and bush, hung like drops 



8 CAIN'S WIFE. 

of rubies and pearls — a wilderness of flowers redolent of 
eternal spring, and pulsing with bird song; where dappled 
fawns played upon banks of violets; where leopards, peace- 
ful and tame, lounged in the copses of the magnolia; and 
where lions panted in jungles of roses — a billowy landscape 
festooned with tangled creepers, and curtained about with 
sweet-scented groves of oranges and pomegranates. The air 
was softened by a dreamy haze of perpetual springtime: 
through the mist there flowed a truculent river, alternately 
gleaming in the sunlight and darkening in the shadows. Down 
in some dark vale, fresh from the worship of God, slept Adam. 
No monarch ever slept on a softer couch and no earthly 
potentate was ever draped with more costly and beautiful 
tapestry. And God caused to pass over him a sleep, and 
forth from a painless wound in his side there sprang a being, 
blithesome as the air; her hair hung like strands of gold, her 
teeth were like pearls, her cheeks like the roses. He gazed 
upon God's capsheaf of creation, His first thought for the 
happiness of man — Eve. I think Adam must have wooed 
her in the morning when the dew was on the flowers; I think 
he wooed her at noontide by the river bank; I think he wooed 
her when the silvery moon flecked the feathery foam. I think 
then cattle must have departed in pairs, and I can hear the 
quail whistling for his mate, and the blue-jay and robin stop 
quarreling in the top of the cherry tree and they hie away 
to the green to build their nest and to rear their young. But 
man was a fool, and man is a fool to-day, for in the exer- 
cise of his God-given free will he ate of the forbidden fruit 
and he fell, and what a fall it was! It was like the fall of 
Virtue into the arms of Vice; like the fall of purity into cor- 
ruption; like the fall of a star from Heaven into Hell; like 
the fall of a wandering albatross from the region of light 
down into a dark, tempestuous sea. And when man ate 
of the forbidden fruit, God put the angel with drawn sword 



CAIN'S WIFE. 9 

to guard the Tree of Life that man might not reach out and 
eat thereof and live forever." 

The third chapter of Genesis closes with the story of 
man being driven from the Garden. The fourth chapter opens 
with the story of the birth of Cain, and presents two descrip- 
tions, his crime and, incidentally, his wife. 

I presume the question, "Where did Cain get his wife?" 
has been asked as much as any question in regard to the 
heroes and characters of the Bible. In almost every town 
where I conduct evangelistic campaigns the question comes 
up; somebody seems to be having trouble with Mrs. Cain. 
I have investigated the class of men who seem to be troubled 
over this section of Scripture, and I r^ave come to the con- 
clusion that she is not Cain's wife who stands in the way, 
but usually some other fellow's wife. (Applause.) I want 
to say at this point, some folks have gotten into serious trou- 
ble by being too solicitous about the wife of some other man, 
and some have received a load of buckshot for their pains. 
The average infidei undertakes to darken counsel with words 
by reading into the Scripture something not contained in the 
text; they wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction by 
either maliciously or ignorantly making discrepancies out of 
wrong inferences and mixed quotations. There are three 
statements in the Scriptures which can easily be conflicting, 
if the person who reads them hasn't very much sense. One 
verse says, "Every man shall bear his own burden" ; another 
verse says, "Bear ye one another's burdens"; and still an- 
other says, "Cast thy burdens upon the Lord and He shall 
sustain thee." The meaning is so simple in each case that 
these verses scarcely need any elucidation. The first verse 
quoted deals with individual responsibility and accountability. 
The second verse quoted commands us to give our neighbor 
a lift in the time of his distress. The third verse simply in- 
forms us that when humanity discovers the fact that it is 



io CAIN'S WIFE. 

unable to bear the burden of its guilt and stand approved 
unto God in the day of judgment, Jesus will gladly bear all 
our burdens; for this cause He came into the world and in 
His own body on the tree He bore our burdens. The aver- 
age shallow reader quotes the reference to Cain's matrimonial 
affairs in the following language: "Does not the Bible say, 
'Cain went over into the land of Nod and got his wife'?'* 
The Bible does not say that and there is no use to stumble 
over an imaginary discrepancy. Some time ago, in a South- 
ern State, a teacher had been talking to the little folks in the 
school-room about double letters. A little boy got the idea 
into his head, so when he was asked to read the sentence, 
"Up, up, Mary, and see the sun rise," he read the sentence 
in the following language: "Double up, Mary, and see the 
sun rise." (Laughter.) He was doing the best he had 
sense enough to do, and I think the average infidel probably 
can match him in this regard. I heard of another boy who 
evinced a similar degree of wisdom. He was asked to 
read the sentence, "This is a worm; do not step on it." He 
read as follows: "This is a warm doughnut; step on it." 
(Laughter.) It does not take any great amount of brain- 
power to mix up an ordinary sentence. 

The Bible does not indicate a special journey over in- 
to the land of Nod on the part of Cain. The infidel idea 
suggests another race of people over in the land of Nod who 
were on the earth at the time Adam and Eve were created. 
The record is as follows: "And Cain went out from the pres- 
ence of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east 
of Eden." The word "Nod" means wandering, vagabond, or 
the accursed — simply the curse of God upon the earth. Cain 
was a fugitive, a vagabond, and a wanderer, and as he jour- 
neyed on the east of Eden, the 17th verse adds: "And Cain 
knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch." The 
word "knew" is generic; it properly veils the meaning of the 



CAIN'S WIFE. ii 

original Hebrew, which simply refers to the concurrence of 
sexes. She became the mother of Enoch. There is no dis- 
crepancy in the record nor in the marriage of Cain, but the 
question, "Where did Cain get his wife?" is still up for con- 
sideration. It is not essential to the salvation of any man 
that he should know where Cain got his wife. If I were sen- 
tenced to death to-night if I failed to tell where the men of 
this audience got their wives, I certainly would have to die. If 
you have not been told where I got my wife and you were 
placed under sentence of death if you failed to tell where or 
when I got my wife, you doubtless would be executed. I 
have as much right to growl at the Bible because I do not 
know where you got your wife as you have to growl at the 
Bible because you do not know where Cain got his wife. 
In plain English, it is none of your business where I got my 
wife, nor is it any of my business where you got yours. It 
is sufficient to say, Cain got his wife from his father-in-law. 
The Bible does not give the name of that gentleman. It is 
advisable at this point in my discourse to deal with the age 
of Cain when he married: According to the consensus of 
opinion on the part of Bible scholars of integrity, Cain was 
between one hundred and twenty-five and one hundred and 
thirty years of age when he married. The leading statisticians 
of the world agree that population will double itself twice 
every twenty-five years under favorable circumstances. In 
the Orient girls of ten and eleven years are wives and moth- 
ers. The race evidently began in the Orient. It is also 
safe to state that never in the history of the world were con- 
ditions so favorable to rapid increase in the human family. 
There were no characterless women who desired by criminal 
abortion to paralyze Nature's laws and redden their hands 
with the blood of their unborn offspring. There were no ren- 
egade doctors assisting lustful hags in this nefarious and damn- 
able iniquity. Instead of the title "Doctor of Medicine" be- 



i2 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ing applied to such a physician, "Despicable Murderer" should 
be applied, and every rascal of that sort should wear striped 
garments and short hair and keep regular hours in a peniten- 
tiary. (Applause.) 

Some time ago an American evangelist was preaching 
in England, and when he came to the Seventh Command- 
ment, he gave utterance to the pusillanimous statement: "This 
is a commandment which should not be discussed before a 
mixed audience." I have often wondered whether coward- 
ice or stupidity was the basis of that statement. A mixed sin 
needs to be branded before mixed audiences. God never 
issued a Bible for women only and a Bible for men only. 
The old Book simply says, "Thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery." Impure old rascals all over this country have charged 
me with being too plain in my preaching, and not infrequently 
have little pulpit puppets joined in this harangue. 

If we start with Adam and Eve as the original pair 
in the Garden of Eden, and understand that genealogy does 
not name the daughters born in the homes of the ancients in 
the Bible record, as a rule; that the family name was handed 
down through the sons — we figure, according to the statisti- 
cians, that population will double itself twice every twenty- 
five years. At the time Cain married there were between 
1 1,000 and 12,000 people on the earth, possibly 50 per cent 
of them were girls and women. That would mean between 
5,000 and 6,000 of that sex upon the earth, and it certainly 
would not be hard for Cain to choose his wife from that 
multitude. Take the entire population of the earth as it 
doubtless figured at that time, somewhere between 1 1 ,000 
and 12,000 people; put them in villages of 50 to 200 in- 
habitants each and scatter them from ten to thirty miles apart, 
and you will have a chain of villages as long as from Chi- 
cago to New York. The question, "Who was Cain's wife?" 
is of more importance than "Where did he get her?" Let 



CAIN'S WIFE. 13 

me consider the crime of Cain. Abel was a keeper of sheep. 
Cain was a tiller of the ground. When Cain brought his 
offering unto Jehovah, it was rejected. The Bible says, 
"Unto Cain and to his offering God had not respect." Cain's 
unrighteousness overmatched his formal offering to God. 
Abel was a righteous man and he therefore followed the plan 
of sacrifice as an atonement for his sins, for he brought of 
the firstlings of his flock and the fat thereof, and Jehovah 
had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Cain was very 
angry. God rebuked him and told him Sin was crouching at 
his door. Cain murdered his brother in a field. God asked 
him a little later, "Where is Abel, thy brother?" and he 
said: "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?" The blood 
was dripping from his hands, the blood of his murdered broth- 
er. God pronounced a terrible curse upon him, and Cain 
replied: "My punishment is greater than I can bear." The 
Hebrew text will also bear this interpretation: "My trans- 
gression is greater than can be forgiven." I am appalled at 
the audacity of Cain. It makes one shudder to think of the 
perfidy of the wretch who in cold blood murdered his own 
brother. Jehovah appointed a sign for Cain, lest any finding 
him should smite him; in other words, he was branded. He 
had sown to the wind, he was reaping the whirlwind. He 
was guilty of double infamy; he not only became a renegade, 
a red-handed criminal, but he asked some woman to share 
the stigma of his wicked life, to bear his reproach; and some 
woman became his wife, some woman became the partner 
of his vagabondage. Yonder she goes through the jungle, 
barely escaping the stroke of the deadly serpent, fleeing in 
her face pale, the expression haunted, her hair disheveled, 
terror before the savage beast, scantily clad, her eyes furtive, 
Someone sees her running with the speed of the wind to es- 
cape detection; he asks, "Who is that wild-looking woman?" 
The answer comes: "That is Cain's wife; she married that 



i 4 CAWS WIFE. 

murderous wretch, who because of his jealousy slew his noble 
brother." I have never been able to understand why any 
man would ask a woman to share the disgrace and infamy 
pursuing him because of his wickedness. 

Who is Cain's wife to-night? Is she in thii audience? 
Can she be found in the world? Yes; there are hundreds 
of thousands of sad-eyed, pale-faced, broken-hearted, suffer- 
ing women who can look at the past beauty and happiness 
of girlhood, whose actions and sorrows voice the language of 
the prophet, "Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes 
a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the 
slain of the daughters of my people." Who is Cain's wife? 
Any woman who has married a murderer, an infidel, a drunk- 
ard, a thief, a liar, a manufacturer or distributer of intox- 
icating liquors. The wife of any man who persists in sinning 
against his soul, against God, the Savior, the Holy Spirit, 
the angels, his wife, his children, his friends, his neighbors, 
his town, his county, his State, his country. I want you to 
consider Mrs. Cain up to date. In the first place: 

1. The wife of the murderer is Mrs. Cain. I was in 
a Southern city some years ago conducting a meeting. A pro- 
fessional gambler got under conviction, and one day he asked 
a prominent business man to accompany him to my rooms. 
When they rapped at the door, the business man introduced 
him to me and retired to the parlor. I closed the door and 
the man turned to me and said: "Is there anybody here who 
can hear what I say to you besides yourself?" I said: "We 
are amply protected from any eavesdropping." He said: "I 
want to ask you a question: Can God forgive a murderer?" 
I looked him squarely in the eyes and asked: "Are you a 
murderer?" He shuddered and said: "I don't like to an- 
swer that question." I answered: "There is no need of beat- 
ing around the bush. Tell me honestly why you ask that 
question, and I can deal with you in the light of your need 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 5 

and can do better service than if I am dealing with general- 
ities." He said: "Yes, I am a murderer; I killed one man 
and helped kill another." He told me how an altercation 
had come up; how he had taken a small fence-post and had 
beaten the head of a man almost into a pulp. It was a lucid 
description of a harrowing crime. His reputation had pre- 
ceded him into the community in which he lived when I met 
him and led him to Christ. His wife and children were com- 
pelled to carry the stigma of his crime, and that fact illus- 
trates the exceeding sinfulness of sin. A man by crime brings 
upon his innocent wife and children a blight which time itself 
cannot eradicate. The murderer publicly confessed Christ be- 
fore thousands of people and become a personal worker, and 
after the meeting closed, when the reform campaign had swept 
the entire county as a result of our meeting and new officials 
were elected, he was appointed city marshal, and he cleaned 
out every den and dive in the town. Is there a renegade from 
justice here to-night, a murderer who has long tried to cover 
his steps? I warn you, neighbor, God has said, "The soul 
that sinneth, it shall die." God pity the wife who has to 
suffer the shock and shame of her husband's crimes! God 
pity the helpless children in such a home! 
In the second place: 

2. The wife of the adulterer is Cains Tvife up to date. 
I was conducting a meeting in a Western State some years ago 
and I met a man whose past infamy was described by a per- 
son who was in possession of definite information. He had 
gloried in his shame. He had promised at the marriage altar 
fidelity to his wife, and she had a right to expect that he 
would pay his vow. She had trusted him, she loved him; 
she left all for his sake, but he became vile and corrupt. He 
broke his promises; he drove a dagger worse than steel into 
the heart of his wife. He gloated to her over his conquest 
of women and plainly told her that he did not love her, and 



16 



CAIN'S WIFE. 



when she faltered and fell under the murderous stroke of his 
infamy with a broken heart and with a broken body, he told 
her in the last days of her soul anguish and bodily suffering 
that he would be glad when she died. The wife of Cain, 
suffering the same grinding grief, ten thousand times worse 
than the pangs of death, going into her grave, having suffered 
untold anguish! There are thousands of them in the world 
to-night, and there are far too many wives who have broken 
hearts in this community: sweet, modest, faithful women mar- 
ried to licentious old scoundrels who aren't fit to associate with 
brutes. (Applause.) God pity the wife of Cain in this audi- 
ence to-night ! , 

Some years ago, in one of the fashionable cities of the 
South, a prosperous young man courted and won the heart 
of one of the fairest daughters of that city. Someone has 
said, "All the world loves a lover." I don't often quote the 
man who said that, but of all sections of our country when 
that statement finds sufficient justification, the warm-heartecl 
Southland is the place. Men and women vied with each 
other in extending congratulations when the young man had 
led to the marriage altar that beautiful Southern girl. With 
all her wealth of love, she had entered the new world of love's 
young dream. She had looked across life's broad fields made 
beautiful with blooming flowers whose perfume intoxicated 
her, and on to the summit of life, to those snow-capped moun- 
tains of ripe old age — where we start down the western slope 
toward life's sunset — fully expecting to scatter the garlands 
of love and hope and happiness and joy broadcast all the 
way. Children were born into the home. One day the sweet 
mother stood in the county jail, looking through the bars at 
hti imprisoned husband, who had embezzled thousands of 
dollars tc give to a negro wench, with whom he had been liv- 
ing for years, to keep her from exposing him. His briberies 
had failed; his crime was known to the entire State and na- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 17 

tion. That wife with tear-stained face stood with her sob- 
bing children looking through the bars at that wreck of man- 
hood whom she had loved and trusted so implicitly, so over- 
whelmingly. Brethren, if she and her children should live 
ten thousand years in that city, they can never remove from 
their hearts the sorrow nor can they eradicate from their names 
the terrible blight of that man's crime. Poor Mrs. Cain! 
Broken in heart, crushed in young womanhood, a thousand 
times worse than a widow! Widowhood would have been a 
blessing compared with her present sorrow and disgrace. 
Adulterous husbands, hear me; God says, "Be sure your sin 
will find you out." 

In the third place: 

3. The wife of the drunkard is a modern Cains wife. 
Time paints no fairer pictures than the pictures of love. Too 
often the wedding-bell is the death-knell. Sometimes young 
women say, "Yes, I know he drinks a little, but he is going 
to quit after we get married;" or, "I will reform him." And 
as a result of such nonsense there are so many grass-widows 
in some towns it is enough to give a man hay fever to ride 
through the town. Down in New England some time ago a 
farmer became a drunkard. He left his wife and his sick 
child in a dingy drunken hovel while he went away to the 
village to drink. His wife was too frail to carry wood from 
the distant wood-yard and she had retired early to keep the 
sick child warm, for it was a stormy night; heavy snows had 
fallen ; it was zero weather. Along toward midnight she heard 
the pounding on the door accompanied by oaths and curses. 
She wrapped a heavy shawl about the little child, and hold- 
ing the child in her arms, trying to quiet it, she rushed to the 
door clad only in her night garments, saying, "Husband, I am 
coming; I will open the door in a moment." She had dropped 
the heavy bar across the door to prevent the frigid blasts from 
blowing it open. As soon as she lifted the heavy bar the wind 



18 CAIN'S WIFE. 

blew the door open and it chilled her to the marrow. When 
the cursing drunken brute entered, hr. drove his finger-nails in- 
to the flesh on her shoulder as he began to drag her toward 
the open door. When she realized what the fiends of hell 
had conceived in his heart, she shrieked in agony, "Oh, hus- 
band, for God's sake don't do that! we will freeze to death." 
But with one cruel oath ".; shoved her and the sick child out 
into the bitter embrace of the pitiless Storm King and slammed 
and barred the door. The next day at about eleven o'clock 
a neighbor came pounding on the door, and, not being able to 
arouse the sleeping criminal, he broke the door down with a 
crow-bar. He shook the sleeping man and said: "Get up from 
here; you have murdered your wife and baby. I found them 
dead on the road between here and my house." They dragged 
the drunken wretch intc the court-room, and from there to the 
jail, and from the jail to the scaffold. His only defense was 
whisky, and when a man make:, whisky his defense he will find 
that it wil! become his damnation. And you have low-bred 
scoundrels in this community who traffic in the stuff, and fools 
who drink it. Cain's wife! Oh! sad broken-hearted woman, 
are you here to-night? Do your steps send you back to a 
drunkard's home? God has not forgotten you. Jesus died to 
save you. Angels join you in your weeping. Down in New 
York city some years ago a staggering drunkard looked through 
the bars in the jail as the jailer came past, and said, "Jailer, 
what am I here for?" The jailer looked at him a moment 
and said, "Ycu are here for murder." The man replied, "My 
God! don't tell my wife; it would kill her." The jailer an- 
swered, "Man, it was your wife you killed." Simply another 
story of Cain's wife for your consideration! 

The fourth and concluding proposition is: 
4. The wife of the infidel has accepted the drudgery 
end disgrace of Cain's wife. God says in His Word: "Be 
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." In spite of 



CAIN'S V/1FE. 19 

that clear-cut command, there are foolish, flippant, empty- 
headed professing Christian girls who rush away to the mar- 
riage altar with any sort of a wretch who comes along, simply 
for the sake of getting married. I pity the woman who has 
no more brains and character than to become the wife of an 
infidel. There are 18,592 reasons why a woman should not 
marry an infidel. The first reason is this : The infidel is usually 
profane. He is a foul-mouthed, cussing scoundrel. He usu- 
ally swears at his children, swears at his wife; but if you were 
to catch him down town and hear him swear and some little 
man should get the idea that he has directed his profanity 
toward him, he clenches his fist and steps up before him and 
says, "Did you cuss me?" The big blustering coward re- 
plies, "Oh, no, Tom; I didn't cuss you." Tom answers, 
"You had better not cuss me, or I will crawl over you like 
an ant crawls over a pumpkin." A man can neither be a 
gentleman nor a decent citizen when he swears. The infidel 
is usually impure in his life; he either is, or has been, an 
adulterer, in the majority of cases. He is often drunken, 
and as a rule does not have very high regard for the truth. 
Of course he doesn't believe the Bible, and he makes that 
his boast. Permit me to open the Book just for a moment 
and find out why the blatant infidel does not believe the Bi- 
ble. I read in the twentieth chapter of Exodus a few important 
statements: "Honor thy father and thy mother." The infidel 
does not believe that. "Thou shalt not kill." The infidel 
says he doesn't believe in the Bible. The Bible puts a 
value on human life. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." 
The infidel says he does not believe in the Bible. The 
Bible demands purity, virtue, and honor, the protection of 
womanhood, the safeguard of the home, the bulwark of civ- 
ilization. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not steal." The 
infidel says he does not believe in the Bible. Then I want 
to find out what the dishonest old hound does believe! (Ap- 



20 CAIN'S WIFE. 

plause.) "Thou shalt not bear false witness agafnst thy 
neighbor" — in other words, "Thou shalt not lie." I discover 
in these clear-cut statements from the Bible the reasons why 
the infidel does not believe in the Book. I notice some of 
the men of this audience are looking rather pale in the hear- 
ting of these thunder-bolts. 

I was in a town in Kansas a few years ago, conduct- 
ing a meeting, when the daughter of a Methodist preacher 
came to me and complained that she was becoming skeptical. 
I replied: "Nonsense! don't disgrace your father that way. 
Who put these thoughts into your head? God didn't do 
it, and the Devil, in the form of some man or woman, has 
done it." She said: "I am a nurse in a hospital which is 
conducted by Dr. H . He is a skeptic and he has re- 
peatedly flung contempt upon the birth of Jesus Christ and 
the mother of Jesus." And you have some foul-mouthed 
old devils in this community who have been doing the same 
thing, and I want to say plainly at this point that I would 
not trust an eld reprobate of that sort as far as I could throw 
Pike's Peak. The young woman continued, "He has re- 
peatedly repudiated the integrity of the Bible until these 
skeptical thoughts are flashing through my mind, and I don't 
know what to do." I said in reply: "Did he open the con- 
versation, and has he persisted in trying to cause you to 
lose your confidence in the Scriptures?" She said: "Indeed 
he began the conversation regarding the Bible and religion, 
and when I did not want to talk about such matters, espe- 
cially in the light of his infidelity, he has forced his views 
upon me." Then I answered: "That old scoundrel wants 
to ruin you." She turned very pale and said: "That is 
a terrible charge you are bringing against him." I said: 
"I know it is, but I know what I am talking about." The 
next night another nurse from the hospital told me in private 
conversation that he had tried to ruin her. The third after- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 21 

noon following my conversation with the Methodist minister's 
daughter, a woman came forward, after she had professed 
conversion, and asked for a few minutes of my time. She 
said she wanted to live a good life and was so tired of her 
wickedness. I asked her to be very plain and tell me what 
kind of wickedness she had been guilty of. She said: "I 
have been living in adultery." I asked: "With whom?" 
She replied: "Dr. H ." I turned to one of the minis- 
ters who was some distance away and called him. He came 
at once. I said. "Doctor, are you acquainted with Mrs. So- 
and-So?" He replied: "Oh, yes; I have known rier some 
time." I said: "I wish you would accompany us down 
street on an important mission." I led the way to the office 
of a personal friend of mine who is a notary public. When 
we entered the office the woman said to me: "What do you 
want with me in this office?" I said: "I want you to make 

an affidavit concerning your relations with Dr. H ." 

She did so. When I returned to the meeting that night I 
had some ammunition that ran the thermometer up to about 
195° in the shade. I said: "You have an infidel doctor in 
this town, who has been trying to seduce certain young 
women from the faith, and I also believe he has been try- 
ing to ruin their honor, and I find his name on the affidavit 
in which the woman charges him with adultery." There 
was only one infidel doctor in the town, and the people of 
the community knew very well who the scoundrel was. 

I presume some people in this audience will feel that 
these terrific denunciations will reflect very seriously on the 
reputation of certain prominent citizens of your community. 
Let me say at this point, I do not care the snap of my fin- 
ger about the opinion of any prominent citizen of your com- 
munity or of this nation who is so low down in character 
that he will stand as the enemy of his Creator, and the Christ 
who died to save him, and the Holy Spirit who has called 



22 CAIN'S WIFE. 

him to repentance; who stands as an enemy to purity, to 
righteousness, to prayer, to common decency, by advocating 
that low-flung and contemptible pabulum of perdition — infi- 
delity! I will make this challenge: Whenever you can show 
me an infidel who does not stand condemned in the light of 
the moral and spiritual doctrines of the old Bible, I will 
arrange to have him examined by the county commissioners 
at my expense. 

Some time ago, in one of the cities, an infidel was taken 
with appendicitis; it was located just a little southwest of 
his spotted vest. They hauled him off to the hospital, the 
doctors arrayed themselves in their long aprons, they dragged 
out their squills, antiseptics, and surgical instruments. The 
infidel said: "Doc, hold on; I want you to send for a preach- 
er." "Preacher? nonsense!" said the doctor; "we are just 
about ready to begin the operation. What do you want with 
a preacher?" The old rascal replied: "Doc, I want to be 
opened with prayer." (Laughter and applause.) Some of 
you infidels will find yourselves mighty anxious for the pray- 
ers of a godly mother or a minister of the gospel when you 
begin to face a coffin or the undertaker. 

Some years ago the daughter of an infidel lay on her 
death-bed. Her mother was a Christian and had often tried 
to lead the girl into the Kingdom of God. When she got 
her to the point of decision, the bugbear of her father's infi- 
delity invariably came against her with a crash, and the 
mother had wept and prayed alone. The consultation of 
physicians had cancelled all hope for the girl. The attend- 
ing physician told her plainly that she perhaps could only 
live about a week; it was to him a personal sorrow, but he 
felt that it was his duty to inform her. The young woman 
called her father and her mother to the bedside. She said: 
"Father, mother has often tried to get me to become a Chris- 
tian, and you know how your influence has kept me out of 



CAIN'S WIFE. 23 

the Kingdom. On my death-bed I now ask you, Am I to 
follow your infidelity, or am I to take my mother's God and 
mother's religion and trust her Saviour?" The old iaifidel 
stood looking at his daughter, whom he certainly loved. Her 
question had almost paralyzed him. Finally he said, with 
broken voice, between sobs: "Daughter, my infidelity holds 
out no hope to you in this dark hour. In God's name 
turn from it and take your mother's God, your mother's 
Christ, your mother's Bible." A few days later the dying 
girl, with her arms about her father's neck, plead with him 
to promise her that he would meet her in heaven. He gave 
the promise and was soon afterward converted to God. God 
pity the wife of Cain who to-night is in this audience facing 
an eternal separation from her husband. Man, is there any 
heart left within you? Is there any honor or manhood to 
which I may appeal? If so, in the name of God and in 
the name of your wife and your children, take your stand 
for God and the right and enter the Kingdom. 

Some years ago, in Iowa, a young woman came forward 
to give her heart to Christ. She stood weeping, and said: 
"Something was said to-night which took me in memory to 
the bedside of my dying father, whom I promised a year 
ago to meet in heaven. He lay dying and asked me to make 
the promise, but since that promise was made I have wan- 
dered from God. But to-night I yield; I can hold out no 
more." A young woman who could not be touched with 
an appeal to her father's piety or her mother's religion, would 
certainly be a characterless ingrate. The main difficulty is 
not in reaching the young woman under such conditions, but 
it is in finding men who set the godly example before their 
children. There are too many Cains in the world to-day 
whose wives and children are left to suffer the opprobrium 
and disgrace of sin's blight in the dark hours of the death 
of the father and husband. God pity Cain's wife to-night! 
God pity Cain's children! 



24 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter II. 
THE LOVE OF GOD. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

My text to-night is found in the Gospel of John, the 
third chapter and the sixteenth verse: "For God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." 

My text points unerringly to a river without bank or 
bottom, wider than space and deeper than the Universe, 
flowing with eternal tranquillity and continuity from the heart 
of God. Angelic hosts have reveled in its pristine purity and 
have plunged into its profoundest depths. Time has grown 
gray in soulful contemplation of this awe-inspiring stream, 
ineffable and indefinable. "God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." Invisible artists 
have invaded Heaven's domain and, impoverishing other 
worlds, have returned to earth to spread the fleecy white or 
faintly tinted and burning lustrous clouds, crimson and glo- 
rious, upon the canopy of yonder sky, lifting the far-flung 
battle-cry of the text to Heaven's gates: "God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life." Yon diaphanous comet — the prince of Heaven's al- 
chemy, the silver lining on God's side of the cloud, the ser- 
ried swelling mountain peaks involving God's artillery of 
thunder and musketry of forked lightning, announce, with 
Heaven's megaphone, the love of God to lost and ruined 



CAIN'S WIFE. 25 

man; while oceans rise to fall in dew and rain upon the 
earth, and while the master artist paints the neck-scarf of 
the Storm King and wraps it gently and gracefully about 
the receding precursor of eternal calm. 

The text rings clear and calls you once again to con- 
sider the inextinguishable love of God. The rainbow — that 
glorious exuberance of prismatic prodigality, has baffled all 
man's art, and swept before the gaze of enraptured angels 
the bow of promise which causes holy choirs to almost break 
their hearts in songs of praise to Him who was, and is, and 
ever shall be, King of kings and Lord of lords. And while 
we sleep these royal artists from the glory world slip into 
our yards, orchards, and meadows, and paint the violets a 
lovelier blue than e'er man mixed; they paint the roses, whose 
soft sweet petals blush at the approach of their Creator; and 
while honeysuckles, daisies, forget-me-nots, amaranthine bow- 
ers, and ten thousand billowy tendrils of tangled loveliness 
fresh from the hand of God, intoxicate us with their perfume 
and charm us with their colors rare, they voice the message 
of the clouds: "Our God, our God is love." 

My text is sweeter than a poem; it is grander than the 
tramp of all earth's armies, and is more overwhelming than 
the concerted change of ten million cavalrymen upon a field 
of blood; more majestic than the march of all the solar and 
stellar systems throughout the trackless fields of eeher. 

"Well might the sun in darkness hide 
And shut its glories in, 
When Christ the mighty Maker died 
For man, the creature's sin." 

Gigantic volcanoes have shaken islands and continents, 
but earth, and sea, and sky — yea, all the visible and invisible 
handiwork of God, shook when Jesus Christ announced on 



26 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Calvary's cross, in His dying shout of triumph, "It is fin- 
ished!" the patent evidence of my text: "God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
Where, oh where is the befouled wretch from whose heart 
the arch-fiend of Hell hath torn the cords of love and sym- 
pathy and hope? Is the carcass of purity in our presence 
to-night? Have the imps of Diabolis injected Hell's deadly 
venom into the moral fabric and struck the death-blow to 
faith and hope? Where sin abounds grace much more 
abounds. 

"O Love that will not let me go, 

I rest my weary soul in Thee, 
I give Thee back the life I owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
May richer, fuller be." 

"My brother, the Master is calling for thee, 
His grace and His mercy are wondrously free; 
His blood as a ransom for sinners He gave, 
And He is abundantly able to save." 

My text holds within its narrow confines the story of 
subtle pathos of how humanity broke God's heart, and how 
tears of anguish rolled down the cheeks of Jesus, my Lord, 
when He stood contemplating the stony rebellion of His peo- 
ple, saying: "Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, thou that killest the 
prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as 
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not!" His soul agony increased, and in Gethsemane His 
sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the 
ground; and on the cross of Calvary His arteries were opened 
by cruel spikes and a jagg:d spear. When man's character 



CAIN'S WIFE. 27 

was shattered and black and his soul stained with guilt, and 
death had passed upon one and all because of universal sin, 
while the voice of prayer was stilled and human vocabu- 
laries were bankrupt and there was none to deliver, "God so 
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life." Oh, staggering, faltering sinner, Jesus is the 
chief delight of Heaven, He is the apple of God's eye, and 
since He spared not His own Son in order that you might 
be saved, for you to honor Jesus by repentance and obedi- 
ence means to touch the heart of God as nothing else on 
earth can do; for Jesus' sake He will break the iron bands 
of sin and set the captive free; He will destroy the works 
of the Devil in your soul; He will regenerate and renovate 
you, opening the matrix of Heaven and giving you an eternal 
birthright into the realms of spiritual life. God's love cost 
Him the highest possible sacrifice — "He so loved that He 
gave!" Love without sacrifice is impossible: "It is more 
blessed to give than to receive," said Jesus. The mother 
gives magnanimously and unselfishly — disdaining the inde- 
scribable pangs of childbirth — her daughters as a contribu- 
tion of sweet, modest angels, for our hearts and homes, and 
stalwart sons to grace and bless the world. The sweetest 
blossom that ever bloomed in the human flower garden is the 
precious, modest, loving girl. She gladly sweeps into the 
royal line of sacrifice and gives the love of her throbbing 
heart! Because she loves, she becomes a wife, the queen 
of some heart and home; she sacrifices her rounds of pleas- 
ure, and walks at last with delicate, careful step because she 
loves the unborn child which she conceals and carries near 
her wonderful heart. Human love! Oh, its ocean depths! 
How cheerless would be our firesides, how cold and dead 
would be our homes, and how hard and inflexible would be 
our hearts if love were dead! Earth would consume by spon- 



28 CAIN'S WIFE. 

taneous combustion, and Heaven fall to dust and ashes at 
our feet! 

"There 's a wideness In God's mercy 

Like the wideness of the sea, 
There 's a kindness in His justice 

Which is more than liberty; 
For the love of God is broader 

Than the measure of man's mind, 
And the heart of the Eternal 

Is most wonderfully kind." 

The gift of Jesus Christ opens Heaven's mansions for 
the sinner saved by grace! During the Civil War two sol- 
diers from the Southland became warm friends. One was 
a Georgia boy, the other was a Texas ranger. The ranger 
was taken dangerously ill and finally was honorably dis- 
charged. He said to his friend from Georgia: "Charlie, I 
don't dare start for Texas; the Yankees hold the Mississippi, 
and I have no place to go." His friend said: "I will give 
you a letter to my father; you go to my home and wait there 
until the war is over." The soldier-boys separated, and some 
days later the Texas ranger rang the bell and called for the 
owner of that elegant colonial Georgia home. The aged gen- 
tleman came to the parlor and was handed this letter: 

"Dear Father, — Let me introduce to you my noble 
friend and comrade, Samuel Thomas, whom I have frequent- 
ly mentioned during my previous correspondence, as he has 
been my constant companion in arms during these four years 
of bloodshed and suffering. He is a physical wreck, his 
health has failed, but he carries an honorable discharge from 
service. Being unable to get to his Texas home, I have sent 
him to mine. Please receive him and love him and give him 
every comfort, for the sake of, 

"Your son, CHARLIE." 



CAIN'S WIFE. 29 

The old gentleman, moved with profoundest sympathy, 
embraced the soldier-boy and took him up the stairway and 
opened a door and led him into an elegantly furnished room; 
then, going to a wardrobe, he said: "This is Charlie's room 
and Charlie's wardrobe. Charlie's valet will prepare the bath- 
room for you. Take off your rags and let him burn them. 
Take your bath and dress yourself in Charlie's clothes. This 
is to be your room and my boy's clothing will be yours; and 
when you hear the dinner-bell ring, I want you to take Char- 
lie's place at the table, which has been vacant four years. 
This black boy is at your service; he will bring you Charlie's 
saddle-horse, and whenever you want to ride you can have 
the best of this plantation. Everything is yours for Charlie's 
sake." 

There are multitudes who have fallen wounded on life's 
battlefield in the rags and tatterdom of sinful debauchery, 
clad with filthy rags. If you will come to Jesus, the Friend 
that sticketh closer than a brother, He will write a letter 
to the Father in Heaven; He will put it in your heart and 
on your face and in your soul, and Heaven's wardrobe will 
be opened and Christ's robe of righteousness will be yours, 
and it will perfectly fit you, for we shall be like Him and 
we shall see Him as He is. God the Father, for Jesus' 
sake, offers to open Heaven's banquet-hall and give you a 
seat at the table of the King. Jesus has given to us His guar- 
antee of comradeship and eternal love; He said, "In my Fa- 
ther's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would 
have told you: for I go to prepare a place for you, and if 
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will 
receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be 
also;" and furthermore He adds, "I am the way, the truth, 
and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." 

History tells us of one of the kings of Europe who bor- 
rowed vast sums from a wealthy merchant and banker who 



3 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

was a subject; in fact, he was so heavily involved that he 
was unable to pay his indebtedness; whereupon the wealthy 
banker gave a banquet to which he invited the king and many 
royal guests. While they sat at the banquet-table, the king's 
friend brought forth the bonds indicating the indebtedness of 
the king, and, reading the contracts to the startled guests, he 
held them to the flame, which consumed them. The king 
wept aloud, so great was his appreciation of that magnani- 
mous gift. Nineteen hundred years ago the human race was 
involved in eternal indebtedness so overwhelming that it stood 
in the midst of disgraceful bankruptcy, but God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and Jesus 
Christ expiated man's entire indebtedness in the fires of caus- 
tic agony on the cross! 

When I was traveling in France, I was mightily im- 
pressed with the significant "Ns" on the great buildings; they 
mean Napoleon. History tells us that one night "the Little 
Corporal," while emperor, as was his custom, while walking 
through the midnfght hours, came upon a sentinel sleeping at 
his post, a crime punishable with death. Napoleon reached 
the spot just a moment before the sentinel's password was 
being called down the line; when it came time for the sleep- 
ing sentinel to answer, the emperor spoke the word. The 
aged sentinel sprang to his feet. The moonlight broke through 
a cloud and lighted up the face of Napoleon. The fright- 
ened, weary old soldier, who had fought bravely and lov- 
ingly for the emperor, looked appealingly into the eyes of 
Napoleon; whereupon the emperor said, "It is well that it 
were I that found thee, else it had cost thee thy life." The 
sentinel kissed the hand that bestowed his gun once more into 
his own, and Napoleon silently walked back to his tent. God 
looked upon the battlefields of time and found man a deserter, 
a traitor, and worse than a sleeping sentinel. The sword of 
justice and judgment would have sent him into eternal despair, 



CAIN'S WIFE. 31 

but "God so loved the world that He gave His only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." God stood guard while humanity 
slept, and when justice inflexible and eternal demanded the 
password of honor and purity and fidelity to God, Jesus, the 
boldest warrior that ever stood upon eternal battlefields clad 
in human armament, spoke the word for sleeping, quailing, 
wretched humanity. Humanity awoke and looking into the 
face of the King of kings, was swept into a gulf of fears, 
when Jesus Christ said: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It is well that it 
were I that found thee, else it had cost thee thy life eternally." 
And so Jesus stands beside the guilty sinner to-night with out- 
stretched nail-pierced hands, inviting sinners one and all to 
accept eternal deliverance from the stain and doom of guilt. 
In the South, many years ago, a couple of sweethearts 
quarreled. The judge who was engaged to marry that beau- 
tiful Southern girl became reckless, and when yellow fever 
swept the community, he went to the Sand Hills and devoted 
his time to helping the sick and suffering, and at last he suc- 
cumbed to the dread disease. His altruistic spirit had touched 
the entire city, for he was well known, and not a few knew 
the cause of the judge's great sadness. Some days passed, 
and at last the physician who had in charge the work at the 
Sand Hills, guiding it through loyal subordinates, was down 
in the heart of the city, and he met the beautiful sweetheart 
of the judge. He had known her for many years. He said 
to her: "Do you know your friend, the judge, is very sick 
at the Sand Hills?" She replied with apparent indifference: 
"I have heard that he is sick. How is he, doctor?" The 
doctor said: "He has passed the critical point in the disease, 
but he is dying." She said: "I do not understand you, doc- 
tor; how could he be dying when he has passed the critical 
point in the disease?" The old physician replied: "You fool- 



32 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ish, heartless girl, don't you know why?" Then the doctor 
plainly said: "He is dying of a broken heart." Her eyes 
filled with tears, and she said: "Doctor, will you come with 
me?" And she led the way to a leading florist's establishment. 
She placed her order, and with her own hand she wrote upon 
a blank card just above the pet name the judge loved to call 
her, "With the love of all my heart," and she said to the 
doctor: "Will you please see that the judge gets this box of 
flowers?" He said: "I certainly will." When he returned 
to the judge's side, he was lying in a fitful slumber, and the 
doctor opened the box of flowers and placed them by the bed- 
side on a table. Soon the room was flooded with their fra- 
grance. The judge, at last opening his eyes, looked languidly 
at the flowers, then smiled faintly, and said: "Doctor, I pre- 
sume I am, as usual, under obligations to you again." The 
doctor said: "No, sir; you are not under obligations to me, 
judge; some other person sent these flowers." The judge 
said: "Doctor, who sent them?" "Well," said the physician, 
in a jocular vein, "you guess." The judge, peevish from 
his illness, said: "Please don't taunt me; tell me who sent 
the flowers." The doctor said: "Judge, you will find a card 
in the box; I reckon you haven't forgotten how to read." 
The judge reached his trembling hand into the box and drew 
out the card, and when he looked upon the card, his heart 
hoping against hope until his eyes had seen the name that 
was to him the sweetest name on all the earth, he said: "Doc- 
tor, did she really send those flowers?" The physician said: 
"Most assuredly she sent those flowers, and it was an act 
worthy the little princess who sent them." The judge was 
just weak enough physically to be overwhelmed with his good 
fortune; for the evident tide of the love of that sweet girl 
for him just broke his heart, and I think he was justified in 
entering woman's realm of expressing supreme pleasure — that 
is, he wept. The physician left the room, and the next day, 



CAIN'S WIFE. 33 

when he returned, he found the judge sitting in an invalid's 
chair; the next day the judge sat on the veranda and enjoyed 
the sunshine; the third day the judge had a ride with the 
physician; the fourth day the judge left the Sand Hills a 
well man; the fifth day there was a quiet wedding in that 
Florida city. Oh, love is a tonic! 

This old world seems to me to be the habitat of every 
foul malaria and miasmata, breeding moral turpitude. It 
must have seemed to God the spawning-place of foul disor- 
ders, drunkards, liars, gamblers, libertines, infidels, atheists, 
agnostics, nihilists, communists, all classes and kinds of crim- 
inals in the category of crookedness, perishing certainly and 
eternally. At last God, turning to His gardens of love, 
plucked the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, and 
He wrapped around them the smilax of His eternal love, and 
nineteen hundred years ago in Bethlehem's manger the shep- 
herds and wise men read the message of hope which is the 
message of my text: "For God so loved the world that He 
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 

Ten years ago, in a great Western city, I related the inci- 
dent which I have just described in your hearing. The next 
day the nearest approach to the flowers mentioned which 
could be secured in that great city were sent to me with a 
card attached: "The bouquet broke my heart last night. I 
have yielded to God. I expect to unite with the Church next 
Sunday morning. These flowers are a token of my love and 
appreciation to you for the picture painted." I pray God to 
touch scores of souls in this building to-night with the sweet 
story of God's love. 



34 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter III. 

NOAH'S ARK. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

My text to-night is found in the seventh chapter, the first 
verse, of Genesis: "And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou, 
and all thy house, into the ark." 

The announcement of a text from the Bible will en- 
gender anything from a verbose contest to a battle royal. In- 
fidelity, self-righteousness, and the combinations of unregener- 
ate defense have failed to present any convincing argument 
justifying the race in its contempt of God, and its wickedness. 
The logomachy — that is, the wordy contest without deeds, 
has interested the superficial, but it has failed utterly to justify 
man in his wickedness. It takes no manhood, no brains, and 
certainly no character, for a contemptible clapperclaw to stand 
as the enemy of the Bible, the enemy of the Church, the op- 
ponent of Jesus Christ, possessed with a fiendish pugnacity 
which is the result of a vain attempt on his part to cover his 
contumacy. 

The Bible is true to human nature; it proves its divine 
origin in the fact that it defines sin and describes the vicissi- 
tudes, the vagaries, and doom of the sinner, and opens the 
portals of eternal night at the end of the sinner's journey, 
showing him God's eternal penitentiary, which he has definite- 
ly chosen as his eternal heritage. The same book describes 
the magnificent manhood and matchless womanhood resultant 
upon a life of noble service to God. When a man writes the 
story of a life, he usually photographs the mountain peaks and 
does not descend into the valleys or canyons or commonplace 



CAIN'S WIFE. 35 

prairies; this is particularly true as it applies to the virtues 
of the individual described. The biographers do not include 
in their descriptions of the senators the record of their in- 
famy. Some of the great "statesmen" have become drunken 
bums, but you never would know it by reading the official 
story of their life as man presents it. The mopus may sit 
in his library philosophizing on the record of the success of 
the man in spite of his iniquity, and think, since his luctation 
was a struggle for success which won, that, after all, clean 
character, common decency, and amity with God may or may 
not be an asset. The tonicity of manhood, the thews and 
sinews of character, the virility, vitality, and dynamics of suc- 
cess in the eternal sense of the term, mean the presentation 
of brawny and constant warfare against all moral discrepan- 
cies, rottenness, and creachy citizenship. The flaccid gim- 
crack may boast that he is as "sound as a roach," but God 
never called a man to be a cockroach! The Bible tells us 
of the curiosity of Mother Eve; the Devil told her that if she 
ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, she would be like 
God. The microbes of imitation seemed to gnaw powerfully 
in her soul; I don't know but that they grew so vicious that 
they barked at her; at any rate, the desire to be like somebody 
else wrecked the race. Her fatal blunder was in taking the 
Devil's prescription for an eye-opener; he said: "Your eyes will 
be opened." Men and women, ever since sin's first and fatal 
inning in the Garden of Eden, have been taking the Devil's 
prescription for an eye-opener. The Bible tells us that al- 
though Adam had sense enough to name all the animals, 
he didn't exercise stamina enough to resist temptation. The 
Garden was lost, purity and fellowship with God were sac- 
rificed, and God drove them like common criminals from His 
presence. Cain's jealousy made him a murderer, but the story 
of Enoch begins to throw a gleam of righteousness over the 
struggling race* for trig fec6fd tells lis that he 1 "walked with 



36 CAIN'S WIFE. 

God three hundred years, and was not, for God took him." 
Let me tell you the story of Enoch and his translation. Enoch 
and God use to take walks together; God would come over 
to Enoch's house and talk with him, and they would walk 
out through the fields which held a wealth of flowers, and 
through the woods where tangled mosses and smilax held bil- 
lows of glorious honeysuckles in their tender tentacles; daffo- 
dils, clematis, sweet-scented laurel, and sky-blue violets, roses, 
lilies, and all the fragrant thoughts of God, bloomed and 
blushed or paled in phenomenal profusion in the presence of 
the Creator. On they walked, and at last Enoch said: "I 
must go home." God pinned a forget-me-not on the lapel 
of his coat, and Enoch wandered through the mystic maze 
of pristine beauty, while the earth was young, back to his 
wilderness of flowers, and slept the sleep of the righteous. God 
came for another visit, and Enoch said: "Father, I want to 
go a piece with you." They continued their peregrinations 
on through the mountain fastnesses where birds were singing 
their sweetest anthems and all Nature responded in loving trib- 
ute to the presence of the Creator. The fellowship was so 
sweet, so overwhelming, that at last Enoch saw that he was 
a very great distance from home; God turned to him and 
said, "Come on, Enoch; go home with Me to-night," and he 
was no longer found upon the earth, for God took him! Enoch 
without a doubt was a sinless man after God had touched his 
soul with His mighty power. Elijah was translated; many 
leading Bible scholars consider the Apostle John another who 
was carried away by the chariot of the Lord. We here drop 
back into the faithful record of character in regard to right- 
eousness as well as sin. Abraham's wonderful faith is de- 
scribed in God's record, and also his lying; Sarah's unbelief 
is also mentioned, Lot's covetousness, Jacob's swindling and 
rascality, the gluttony of Esau; and Moses, the marvelous law- 
giver and leader, the man who was more than a prophet, was 



CAIN'S WIFE. 37 

a murderer in Egypt, but he was striking a blow for God and 
righteousness when he slew the Egyptian. David, the mar- 
velous poet, singer, warrior, statesman, and king, was an adul- 
terer. God puts the record before us for a purpose! The 
Apostle Paul consented to the death of Stephen and was a 
party to the crime; Peter denied his Lord with oaths and 
curses; Judas sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, and all 
forsook him and fled. I think the record of Holy Writ which 
describes the lapses of virtue or other forms of iniquity on the 
part of men and women who became Bible heroes is presented 
because God wants to convince us of the fact that His grace 
is sufficient for fallen humanity. If he can forgive and cleanse 
the murderous Moses, lying Abraham, swindling Jacob, doubt- 
ing Sarah, adulterous David, cursing Peter, there is hope for 
the vilest sinner in this world to-night. 

The Scripture lesson which I read to you from the sev- 
enth chapter of Genesis tells us of the call of Noah. God 
investigated humanity and found that the wickedness of man 
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, and it repented 
Jehovah that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved 
Him at His heart, and Jehovah said: "I will destroy man 
whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man 
and beast, and creeping thing and birds of the heavens, for 
it repenteth me that I have made them." Students of demon- 
ology believe that the antediluvian giants were a race abso- 
lutely related to the Devil and so positively possessed by the 
Devil that it practically amounted to devils becoming members 
of the human family with flesh and blood, and that in the pan- 
demonium of unrighteousness and impurity which caused po- 
lygamy to prosper and purity to cease in the earth, God de- 
stroyed the entire race, only sparing Noah and his immediate 
family, for Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah. He 
evidently had kept himself and his home clean. The basis 



38 CAIN'S WIFE. 

of the destruction of the antediluvian character was foul im- 
agination. Imagination is the birth-chamber of thought; the 
action of the subconscious mind in day or night dreams I 
believe to be the active imagination in its work-shop. Some- 
times a young man has a day dream about his future matri- 
monial ventures. He goes to bed and finally is lost in the 
enjoyment of his dream. He is just about to become the 
husband of some wealthy princess, to have the management 
of a great estate, to have liveried lackeys to do his bidding 
while he sits in an easy chair drinking red lemonade out of 
a hose; suddenly his dream is ended, there is a heavy knock 
at the door, and a rough voice calls out: "Get up, John; it 
is time for you to go out and feed the horses and milk the 
cows and slop the hogs!" (Laughter.) He is brought from 
his dreamy empire into the frigid consciousness of his daily 
routine as a common Hillbilly on a farm. Many a young 
woman in her imagination is to marry a count or a no-'count, 
a duke or a fluke, a prince or some other kind of an Euro- 
pean hobo who has an empty title, an empty pocketbook, and 
a dirty character. Sometimes, in her dreaming, her maids 
have just arrayed her for the wedding and she stands before 
the mirrored door admiring her beauty of face and form; she is 
soon to board the train for New York, where she will take 
ship for some court of Europe to outshine the stellar system; 
when, much to her chagrin, she hears a rap and a rasping 
voice saying: "Mary, get up; it is time for you to build 
the fire and get breakfast." And so she drops from her cloud- 
level dreams to the cold farm-house bedroom, which is as 
black as Egyptian darkness, and from there into the narrow 
confines of the farmer's kitchen, where the hired hands are 
tallowing their boots preparatory for the day's work. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) 

Dr. J. G. Holland has given a picture in one of his 
books which deals with imagination substantially as follows: 



CAIN'S WIFE. 39 

A young wife rows away to an isle, where she spends an hour, 
but she would not allow her husband to know where she spent 
the hour; a young woman plies her tiny craft to that secret 
isle and there partakes of forbidden fruit; the young man 
likewise disappears in the heavy foliage of that seductive isle; 
the old and young likewise squander many hours in that in- 
teresting isle. And then he asks, "What is that isle?" and 
answers his own question: "It is the isle of the imagination, 
where unseen we ply our tiny craft." Character is made or 
marred within the narrow limits of that isle. Imagination 
first, thought next, desire next, action next. The unseen thief 
within the soul stole the watch or money before the hand 
reached out and took it. The impure act stained the soul 
before the overt act branded the wretch as guilty of divine 
and human law-breaking. The murder was committed with- 
in the precincts of the soul before the shot was fired or the 
dagger driven to the hilt. "As a man thinketh in his heart, 
so is he." Your actions during this great evangelistic cam- 
paign toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be largely de- 
termined by the kind of impressions you have stowed away 
in the plastic brain-cells during the past years of your life, 
leading up to this important event. 

Foul imagination will ultimately blacken the whitest 
fabric or redden the cleanest hands with human blood, or 
degrade and debauch the purest soul. Holy imagination, the 
parent of pure thought, may lead you to scale the heavens, 
to go speeding through the caravansaries of the Storm-king 
with lightning speed, dashing through the fields of Orion, 
sweeping on through the Milky Way, until you scale the bow 
of the heavens which has been worn smooth by ascending 
and descending angels! Sweep on gloriously until with the 
Apostle Paul you have reached the Third Heaven and hear 
things unlawful for a man to utter, press indefatigably on 
until you see the King in His beauty and hear Heaven's 



4 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

arches ringing with the high hallelujahs of angelic hosts, while 
the four and twenty elders pile their crowns at Jesus' feet and 
eternal melody shakes the universe! 

Now and then it is my good fortune to look upon the 
face of the pure, sweet, modest, ideal woman — God's cap- 
sheaf of creation. Here and there I can see the rugged, 
bronzed features of the stalwart soldier of the cross, upon 
whose face the ineffable glory of holy thought is painted in- 
delibly with Heaven's colors. 

The blood-hounds of lust, with fiendish savagery, had 
slain purity in sight of the leaders of the generation of Noah, 
and the vultures of licentiousness had picked the skeleton bare, 
while the flotsam and jetsam, the detritus and debris of social 
corruption had buried the skeleton in a seething maelstrom of 
universal wickedness. God spoke the imperishable word: "I 
will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the 
earth." Noah was a righteous man and perfect in his gen- 
eration, and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, were 
evidently blameless before the Lord. One day, while Noah 
was walking with God, He said unto him: "The end of all 
flesh is come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence 
through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 
Make thee an ark of gopher wood." I can hear Noah say: 
"Lord, I don't know a thing about making an ark." God 
replied: "I will give you the specifications." God never 
calls upon any man to do the impossible. We have in this 
country a breed of anarchists who say it is impossible in 
the present regime, political, commercial, and social, of the 
nations, for a man to be a Christian; they therefore substan- 
tially assert in the name of an "ism" which pretends friend- 
liness and helpfulness to the laboring element, that red-handed 
anarchy must churn the nations into a reign of political chirur- 
gery until the bleeding republic or the dying empire turns 
pale in the face of this overmastering campaign of infidelity, 



CAIN'S WIFE. 41 

atheism, agnosticism, materialism, and consummate criminal- 
ity which passes current under a flattering pseudonym! 

God said: "Build the ark, and I will give you the spec- 
ifications and the materials for building." I admire the faith 
of the old negro woman who said: "Brudren, ef de Lawd 
says fur me to jump f roo a stone wall, hit 's ma bizness to 
jump an' hit 's de Lawd's bizness to make de hole." God 
said to Noah: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt 
thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without 
with pitch. And this is how thou shalt make it: the length 
of the ark three hundred cubits, and the breadth of it fifty 
cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits." The ark was to 
be a three-story affair, with only one door in the side there- 
of. God continued: "Noah, I will establish my covenant 
with thee, and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy 
sons, and thy wife, and thy son's wives with thee. And of 
every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort, shalt thou 
bring into the ark, to keep them t alive with thee; they shall be 
male and female, birds and creeping things. And don't for- 
get to take plenty of food into the ark, for you are going 
to have a long journey." Thus did Noah, according to all 
that God commanded him. Noah set about to obey the com- 
mand of his Creator. I can see him as he leads the way 
to the forest in search of gigantic gopher wood trees; he and 
his three sons, with axes finely tempered, begin work. One 
after another of those stalwart giants of the forest fell before 
the woodsman's ax. While two are felling trees, perhaps two 
are trimming them and cutting them into proper dimension 
lengths. Perhaps the prehistoric adze and broadax were 
brought into play to square the timbers; and finally, when the 
timbers were cut sufficient to complete the work, Noah called 
his three boys together and ordered them into action. I can 
hear Noah saying, at about 4:30 a. m. : "Shem, I want you 
to go out and hitch up that team of megatheriums, and drag 



42 CAIN'S WIFE. 

in those heavy timbers for the keel of the ark. Ham, you 
yoke up that span of mastodons and get ready to bring in 
the smaller timbers. Japheth, yonder goes a zeuglodon 
through the garden; I want you to set the phocodon on him 
and run him clear off the place. You want to shut the gate 
in good shape, because your mother is afraid of those plesio- 
sauruses, and I want you to put the pack-saddles on the man- 
atuses and bring out about fifteen of them for special work. 
Ham, you tell your wife I expect her to get dinner to-day. 
Tell her I put a brace of myliobates holmesei in the wood- 
shed." The hired hands were probably sent out with ele- 
phants and mammoths to take care of the crops while the spe- 
cial work on the ark was being done by the elect family. 
When the timbers at last were being placed systematically 
and the work of erecting the ark began in earnest, I can see 
the curious throng gathering about, asking all kinds of ques- 
tions, making all kinds of adverse remarks, trying to discour- 
age by disparagement and ridicule the work of that grand 
old servant of the Lord. I imagine them saying: "Noah, 
what do you think you are going to do?" He replies: "I 
am going to build an ark. God is going to destroy the earth 
and the wicked people of the earth. I warn you to repent." 
Doubtless they were indignant, and they probably replied: 
"Nonsense! you are crazy. We don't object to you building 
a big building like this, so we will not molest you ; but if your 
insanity shows any form of violence, we will have you locked 
up." I can hear Noah reply: "I advise you knockers to move 
on; if you don't, I will set this cetacean on you." 

The work was prosecuted with indefatigable energy. 
Noah and his intrepid sons labored from daylight until dark, 
until at last the gigantic ark stood as a monument of their 
perseverance and faithful endeavor, and I can see in my im- 
agination thousands of long-whiskered antediluvians coming 
to look upon that marvelous piece of handiwork, and beauti- 



, 



CAIN'S WIFE. 43 

ful antediluvian girls accompanied by sturdy Adonises, carry- 
ing bows and many arrows to protect them in their journey- 
ings through the wilderness. All roads led to the ark in those 
days. Every road to Hell crosses the way to Heaven! At 
last the ark was finished, and God gave seven days of grace. 
During this time the people began to feel the thrill of gen- 
uine fear. The ark was there before them as a monument 
to the fidelity and faith of Noah and his sons. At last a 
convention of the scientists was called to quiet the fears of the 
populace, for they began to clamor. The common people 
have the most sense, after all. The leaders got together; the 
pariarchs, ranging in age from two hundred to seven hundred 
and ninety-eight years, gathered by hundreds. Prof. Ichabod 
Sackarappa, the great astronomer, was the chief speaker of 
the evening. He arose amid tumultuous applause, and said: 
"Ladies and gentlemen, I appreciate very highly the honor 
conferred upon me at this time. I have been asked by your 
leading citizens to come and state from centuries of experi- 
ence my candid opinion of the superb folly of Noah in his 
prediction that there is to be an universal flood and a total 
annihilation of mankind, save all who have passage in his 
crude but gigantic ship. Permit me here to pay tribute to 
the phenomenal energy of my friend, Captain Noah. He has 
built a monument of wood which will doubtless stand for 
centuries on this dry land to evidence his zeal and faith in 
his supposed vision. He has been the direct cause of bring- 
ing thousands of tourists to this city, and I urge upon you 
that you honor him for his faithful work. But it is a well- 
known fact that Noah is not an astronomer; his prognostica- 
tions concerning the weather are not at all in harmony with 
the weather experts. I would not advise Captain Noah to 
issue an almanac. As I am a gentleman seven hundred and 
ninety-two years of age, having engaged in the edifying study 
of astronomy for more than seven hundred years, I stand be- 



44 CAIN'S WIFE. 

fore you to-night as an acknowledged authority. I have 
searched the elliptical journey around the sun, commonly 
called the zodiac. I am personally conversant with all of 
the constellations thereof — twelve of them, as most of you 
know: Aries, the ram; Taurus, the bull; Gemini, the twins; 
Cancer, the crab; Leo, the lion; Virgo, the maiden; Libra, 
the scales; Scorpio, the scorpion; Sagittarius, the archer or 
the hunter; Capricornus, the goat; Aquarius, the water-bearer; 
and Pisces, or the fishes. Let me assure you that through- 
out the entire universe, so far as constellations indicate, from 
the Great Bear, the Little Bear, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and 
the Dragon on the circumpolar constellations to the Southern 
Cross, there is nothing which would indicate that we are in 
any wise to fear any unusual weather conditions. Dismiss 
the thought, accept the supremacy of Noah as a ship-builder, 
but do not take his weather forecasts seriously." The people 
cheered to the echo. Then the theologians were called upon 
to deal with the situation, and they unanimously decided that 
God was too good to destroy the people by a flood or punish 
them hereafter in a lake of fire. It matters not how much 
of reprobacy, adultery, and licentiousness stain and mar your 
family circle; according to these fireless theologians, God is 
too good to enforce His demand for common decency. So 
the people, one and all, were lulled to sleep; but the seven 
days passed and they gathered by thousands to ridicule Noah. 
They came from all directions to view the ark. I don't know 
how far the ark was from water. It may have been on the 
bank of a river, it may have been near the Mediterranean, 
it may have been five hundred miles from any stream of any 
size; it may have been located upon an arid plain many miles 
from a forest; it matters not where it was located. It is 
enough to say that when the flood came, Noah had a religion 
that would float and stem the breakers. The people stood about 
in groups, discussing the peculiar confidence of Noah, his firm 



CAIN'S WIFE. 45 

expectation, and his plain statement that God that day would 
destroy the earth. God spoke to him the day he finished the 
ark, and said: "Seven days from to-day I will cause it to 
rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and every 
living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face 
of the ground." I can see the officials standing together 
strangely convicted by the oppressive silence which usually pre- 
cedes the approaching tempest. As they comment upon the 
folly of Noah, one man turns and with keen vision pierces 
the heavens. As he gazes, he seems to see a whirling mass 
not exactly like a cloud, and yet so much like it that it fills 
his soul with surging tides of fear. He points his finger, he 
speaks with bated breath, his eyes are starting from their 
sockets, he shrieks: "Great heavens! what is that approach- 
ing?" And as the multitudes turn, looking skyward, they 
see that whirling cloud moving through space with the rapid- 
ity of a cyclone. As it approaches, the individuality of the 
cloud has changed and they look upon thousands of flying 
fowls sweeping on toward the ark. God's handiwork had 
heard His call, and gigantic flying creatures and birds upon 
whistling wing, with variegated plumage, the masterpieces of 
color, fresh from God's workshop, those wonderful birds of 
the tropics, the Orient, the Southland and the Northland, 
from the largest to the smallest daintily feathered humming- 
birds, two by two, dropped with matchless grace toward the 
open door of the ark, and soon the last tiny pair had disap- 
peared. Consternation overwhelmed the multitudes; men be- 
gan to shriek in distress, women fainted, children screamed 
in terror. Men approached and cursed the scientists and 
threatened the theologians, shouting: "Noah has no magic 
wand to call the birds from far and near, thousands of which 
we have never seen and never heard before. This ark is 
God's ark." Then began the attempt to quell the riotous 
throng, to quiet the fearful spirits. When order had been 



46 CAIN'S WIFE. 

restored, a man turned toward the forest, and as he looked 
it seemed that the whole earth was instinct with life, for there 
came in pairs all of the spared specimens of quadruped mam- 
malia, from the lordly elephant and the fiendish hippopotamus 
to the smallest creatures, involving the creative thought of 
God. On they came straight toward the ark; the multitudes 
fled precipitately, but gigantic beasts, savage and blood- 
thirsty under ordinary circumstances, moved with the perfect 
order of domesticated animals, utterly indifferent to the pres- 
ence of man or other morsels of meat which followed close 
at hand. At last there climbed up the gang-plank a pair of 
the daintiest little creatures God ever made, and a voice from 
the heavens rent the air and threw shivering terror into every 
nerve-cell and corpuscle of blood and fiber of brain. God 
spoke; He said: "Noah, come thou, and all thy house, into the 
ark." And instantly Noah and his family rushed up the 
gang-plank; the last man in turned and threw the gang-plank 
out upon dry ground and God shut the door of the ark. Then 
ten thousand shrieks of human horror rose to the vaulted skies; 
suddenly the earth rocked, the heavens roared, the thunders 
like unchained blood-hounds baying shook the vaulted sky, 
the pitiless Storm-king broke through the caravansaries of 
primeval tempest, and the deadly electrical artillery of the 
heavens struck with unerring aim the gigantic policemen of 
the forest, whose lordly tops reached incredible heights. Shat- 
tering breaking timbers, fleeing screaming humanity, quak- 
ing groaning earth, and the angry heavens, forming an un- 
breakable chain from the metal of God's vengeance, fastened 
ten thousand whirling cyclones together, drawn by the steeds 
of lightning. On came the overwhelming tempest; the rip- 
pling mountain brook became an angry avalanche, the ma- 
jestic river became a thousand maelstroms rushing with 
mad horror from its banks and leaping across the plains 
until the fresh water struck with strange savagery the bounds 



CAIN'S WIFE. 47 

of ocean's salt. What rafts were made by rebellious 
wretches were dashed to atoms against the precipitous moun- 
tains, which soon began to hide beneath the surging floods. 
The waters rose until the dead and drowning of all forms of 
animate life mixed and mingled in the whirlpools of divine 
wrath. "Away to the mountain peaks!" was the thought and 
cry of every sturdy giant; but in their mad effort to reach 
the summit, ofttimes gigantic boulders rolling ahead of hor- 
rific landslides dashed to atoms the cherished hopes of many. 
I see one sturdy Nephilim, his beautiful wife and their child 
in his arms, with eager eyes fixed on yonder summit, climb- 
ing the mountain peak like a hind. At last he stands upon 
the coveted summit, a target for the lightning's bolt and the 
certain prey of the rising torrent. At his feet there crouches 
and cowers like a belabored hound the gigantic monarch of 
the jungles, a lion which has made its way to the same point 
of vantage; he looks into the eyes of man, the masterpiece 
of God's creative genius, and his lordly roar of distress shakes 
the mountains. The man places his lips to his wife's sweet 
cheek; she has suffered all but the pangs of Hell in her fright, 
and while he turns and pats the head of the crouching 
lion and looks down the mountain side to the green and 
angry waves piling mountain high, he speaks the words of 
antediluvian despair: "V/ould God that I were pure again!" 
The wind rages until gigantic tempests sweep surging billows 
on toward the mountain peaks, and at last, holding to that 
brittle thread of hope, a wave reaching a hundred feet above 
them grips them in its mad embrace, and the lion, the man, 
the woman, and the shrieking infant in its mother's arms are 
dashed upon that worldwide sea which knew no mercy and the 
terrible greed of which knew no cessation until the last vestige 
of animate life had given up the ghost. "Be not deceived: 
God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall 
he also reap." That grand old ark floated until at last it 



48 CAIN'S WIFE. 

landed safe upon Mount Ararat. The bow of promise glori- 
fied the skies, for God wrapped it about the shoulders of the 
dying Storm-king, and its every appearance gives us hope and 
assurance that never again will a flood destroy the earth or 
man from the earth, but God declares that a scourge more 
terrible will sweep upon the earth; for at last, after the fright- 
ful career of wicked humanity engaging the human intellect 
as the vehicle of the utterances of millions of terrible blas- 
phemies and vile obscenities and contemptible ribaldry, which 
have impregnated space with arpeggios for screaming, danc- 
ing demons, while the very moral atmosphere has been the 
incubator of every debasing and poisonous immorality com- 
bining and concocting soul-destroying narcotics, while deadly 
miasmata and scorching siroccos have flung their frightful ban- 
ners far upon the wings of destructive soul epidemics, God 
has grown weary of the wickedness of man! Humanity stood 
in its present unregeneracy debauched by devils, disgraced, 
degraded, polluted, impoverished, lacerated and scarred and 
frightfully disfigured as a result of its soul bondage. The 
judgment fires of God after the millennial reign of Jesus Christ 
upon the earth will sweep the last vestige of man's infamy 
and the Devil's chicanery from the face of this terrestrial 
globe, for space will become one gigantic crematory, and God 
gives us this picture of the impending doom: "The day of 
the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens will pass 
away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fer- 
vent heat, and the earth and the rocks thereof will be dis- 
solved." The mode of protection on the plains in the time 
of the prairie fire was fire — that is, they burned a space im- 
mediately around the camp large enough to give protection. 
Our God is a consuming fire, and if we allow the fire of Je- 
hovah to purge us from all stain of guilt, we will be able to 
pass through the judgment fires and enjoy the phenomenal 
spectacle of eternity's greatest bonfire. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 49 

I wonder to-night if you and all your house are in the 
ark? Perhaps some of Noah's relatives ran screaming toward 
the ark, and cried out: "Noah, I am your cousin," or "I am 
your nephew," or "I am your uncle or aunt, your wife's broth- 
er." It mattered not; God had shut the door of the ark and 
none could enter. God is not going to consider the human 
relationships of any man at the Day of Judgment and spare 
him because his father was great or small. I want to close 
my message to-night, urging the fathers and mothers to enter 
the ark and to see to it that their children have entered with 
them. 

Some years ago a man was called to his home from his 
counting-house and informed by his broken-hearted wife that 
their son Charles was dying. The mother added: "I can- 
not bear to tell him; perhaps you should break the news to 
him." Finally the father stood by the bedside of his dying 
boy, and while his heart was sad and broken, he told the 
boy that the physician had given up all hope and that he was 
doomed to die. The boy began weeping, and said: "Father, 
I don't want to die; I must not die, I am not ready." The 
horror of the boy, the plaintive appeal to be spared by death's 
keen sickle, brought dismay and terror to the father's heart, 
and finally he said: "My boy, is there anything I can do for 
you?" He said: "Yes, father; please pray for me, for I 
don't want to die." The man turned toward the open win- 
dow and drove the nails into the palms of his hands and bit his 
lip until it bled, trying to master the surging tides of parental 
emotion and terrific conviction. Finally he turned to the bed- 
side and said: "My boy, I am not a praying man, I cannot 
pray for you." Then the dying boy plead that when he died 
they would not bury him away in the city cemetery, but would 
put him in a grave underneath the big tree on their own es- 
tate and put a fence around it, for, he said, "It won't seem 
so awful if you and mother will come out and sit under the 



5 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

tree by my grave in the summertime." The man gave his 
promise and the poor boy died. A year later the father was 
converted and he stood before a gathering in that Eastern city, 
and they tell me he was a man of wealth, and he said, when 
he had told the story of his inability to pray for his dying 
boy, "I would gladly give all I possess if I could call that 
boy back and grant his dying request." Neighbor, suppose 
your boy calls upon you to-night or to-morrow to pray for 
him, can you present the prayer? If you cannot, you are a 
heartless wretch, and I think angels must weep because of 
your infamy. Mother, can you pray for your perishing boy 
or your dying daughter in the sad hour of physical dissolu- 
tion? If not, you are not worthy to be the mother of chil- 
dren bound for eternity, sailing life's sea of incertitude with- 
out chart and compass or pilot. God pity the prayerless par- 
rents and the Godless children of the community. "Come thou, 
and all thy house, into the ark." That ark of Noah's typified 
the eternal security and salvation of Jesus Christ. Are you 
safe in salvation's ark to-night? 

Some years ago, in the East, a friend of mine related an 
incident regarding the death of a boy. The father had been 
called from his place of business and the mother had told 
him that the physicians in council had given up hope for the 
boy. She urged her husband to tell the boy that he could 
not live, in order that they might grant any request he felt 
disposed to make. When the father knelt at the bedside of 
the boy and told him that it was impossible for him to re- 
cover, the boy put his hand upon his father's head and said: 
"Father, don't you cry, don't take it so hard, for when I see 
Jesus, I will tell Him that ever since I can remember you 
taught me to love Him and to serve Him, and it will be all 
right; mother has done all she could do to get me ready to 
meet my Savior, and you all will come and see me sometime 
in Heaven." My friend thought he had finished the story, 






CAIN'S WIFE. 51 

but he had not, for at the close of the meeting a man came 
to him and said: "Let me tell you the rest of the stoiy. My 
boy turned to me and said, 'Father, please take me in your 
arms,' and I took him in my arms; and he said, 'Lift me 
higher,' and I lifted him higher; and then he said, 'Lift me 
higher, please,' and I lifted him higher; and I heard him 
whisper, 'Higher,' and I lifted him above my head and held 
him there until my arms ached; and when I lowered him, his 
spirit had returned unto God who gave it." "But," he said, 
"long before that I had lifted him into the arms of Jesus 
Christ." Neighbor, can your boys and girls say that of your 
faithful Christian interest in them? If not, "Come thou, and 
all thy house, into the ark." 



52 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter IV. 

THE INCARNATION. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

I am going to take the liberty of making a change in the 
usual translation of some verses from the first chapter of the 
Gospel of John, using "Revelation" where "Word" usually 
appears: "In the beginning was the Revelation, and the Rev- 
elation was with God, and the Revelation was God. This 
Person was in the beginning with God, and through this Per- 
son all things came into being; through Him life was, and 
His life was the light of men. And the Revelation became 
flesh and dwelt among us." (John 1:1-5, 14.) 

The song of the prophets and the dream of the sages 
was realized when God became a man and dwelt among us. 
The supreme manifestation of Infinite love is described by the 
inspired Apostle as the Revelation of God; He became flesh 
and dwelt among us. The greatest objection raised by the 
enemies of Christ is that too much mystery is connected with 
the story of His birth, and too much of the miracle is con- 
nected with His life. Henry Drummond once said: "Life 
without mystery is impossible; religion without mystery is non- 
sense." It is honest to say that I have no right to brand a 
thing a miracle or a mystery and doubt it if I have not sense 
enough to understand it or power enough to match it. We do 
not need to enter into a discussion of the Bible or the life of 
Jesus Christ to engage ourselves in the study of things hard to 
understand — in fact, inexplicable. The scientist's knowledge of 
pan-genesis leads him into the mystic maze of complex and reflex 
forces. The fact that the germ of physical life measures about 



CAIN'S WIFE. 53 

the one hundred and twenty-fifth of an inch in length in no 
wise prevents the Creator from dictating to each germ the niche 
it shall occupy in animate life. There is no mistake in this 
regard. The inflexible law of heredity guards jealously the in- 
dividuality of the species; while there may be progress or 
degeneracy evidenced in the blood or the breed, there is no 
such thing as one species breaking down the walls which 
narrowly confine it and entering into another and a higher 
kingdom. 

The "Nahash" (Hebrew word, translated "serpent," 
Gen. 3:1), which received the curse of God in the Garden 
of Eden and became a serpent, evidently disappeared from 
the face of the earth under the withering blight of God's 
curse. Degeneracy, and not evolution, is the eternal dictum 
when rebellion against God characterizes the action of any 
creation of His handiwork. Whatever that creature was, it 
evidently was able to talk. It may have approximated the 
so-called missing link which man in his blind atheism has 
sought to discover in his inglorious attempt to relate man to 
the creatures of the jungle. That "Nahash" evidently be- 
came the spokesman of the Devil; at any rate, the result of 
man's sin and the wickedness of the "Nahash" brought death 
upon the human race and snakes into existence. 

I know of no scientist who claims to have a complete 
understanding of pan-genesis, heredity, or atavism. God es- 
tablished the law of heredity when He said He would visit 
the sins of the parents unto the third and fourth generations 
of them that hate Him. This has been amply demonstrated 
and hardly needs elucidation, yet when we consider the multi- 
dinous progeny of the Jukes family of Pennsylvania — which 
followed the unholy union of a male and female criminal — ■ 
twelve hundred relatives have been traced in their records of life ; 
eight hundred out of twelve hundred were criminals. Many of 
them were executed, and practically all served time in the jails 



54 CAIN'S WIFE. 

and penitentiaries of the State. No man can understand why 
such a line of crime can run like a maelstrom through a family. 
We can discuss the power of pre-natal thought in shaping char- 
acter, and we can discuss the predisposition to crime as a re- 
sult of environment, suggestion and auto-suggestion, but we are 
simply talking of vehicles, and connecting links, and bridges, 
and highways, and omnibuses, and automobiles, and airships, 
in regard to the fulfillment of the blight of hereditary debauch- 
ery. There are certain hereditary psycho-neuroses, nervous 
disorders — which are handed down from one generation to 
another, apparently of psychic origin. There has never, as 
yet, been presented a satisfactory explanation for that peculiar 
nervous disorder superinducing somnambulism. Some of you 
people act like you don't know what a somnambulist is. I 
will tell you. Some years ago a young man was engaged to 
a certain young woman, and one night he said in great confi- 
dence: "There is only one thing that stands in the way of our 
getting married." She replied, with great earnestness: "Well, 
good gracious! what is that?" He said: "I am a somnam- 
bulist." "Well," she replied, "don't let that bother you, for 
I am a Methodist, and we can attend the Methodist church 
in the morning and the Somnambulist at night." 

It is certainly a mystery when you consider the helpless- 
ness of the babe in its mother's arms. I have seen young 
quails running with pieces of egg-shell hanging to them; the 
young duck is perfectly at home on the water; but your baby 
will freeze or starve unless love directs and controls your rela- 
tionship to it. I wonder if Napoleon's mother thought that 
she held in her arms the emperor of France, the military genius 
of his century, when he was a sleeping infant. I wonder if 
Lincoln's mother ever thought she held in her arms the future 
president of the United States, in the little log cabin down in 
Kentucky. Consider the development of the mind, the mas- 
tery of languages, the ramification of the student in scientific 



CAIN'S WIFE. 55 

lore, the tints and deeper shades of color in the intellectual 
spectrum, the result of the mastery of diction. How vast and 
marvelous are the possibilities of human genius! 

Until the scientists brought forth the spectroscope, a ray 
of light was a mystery. For unknown centuries men have wor- 
shiped the sun, and we still have stupid sun-worshipers, who 
in moral darkness exceedingly quake and tremble in the pres- 
ence of their erratic modes of worship. The spectroscope re- 
veals to man the component parts of a ray of light. The chem- 
ical composition tells its own story. As we glance at the 
table of spectra, we discover, for instance, by the broad yel- 
low lines, sodium; by the blue lines, thallium; and by the 
green lines, rubidium; and the burning hydrogen, oxygen, ni- 
trogen, give clear-cut evidence of their presence with invaria- 
ble regularity. Swan declares he discovered the two-millionth 
of a gram of sodium in a ray of light, while Lang declares he 
was able to detect the fifty-millionth of a gram of sodium in 
the burning ray of light. 

Chemistry teaches us the philosophy of color, and we 
discover that certain bodies reflect or transmit some colors, 
while they absorb others. When a body appears yellow, it is 
because it has absorbed all other colors and cannot absorb the 
yellow. The leaves of the trees and flowers are not in reality 
green, but the chlorophyl cells reflect the green rays. This 
is a self-evident fact, because when the frosts follow the turn- 
ing heat of summer, the leaves change color — that is, they re- 
flect other rays. There are three chief types of spectra, the 
continuous spectrum — those furnished by ignited solids and 
liquids; the band or line spectrum, consisting of a number of 
bright lines, and produced by ignited gases or vapors ; and ab- 
sorption spectrum, those furnished by the sun or fixed stars. 

If by aid of the spectroscope or micro-spectroscope we 
are able to analyze the rays of the sun and understand that 
it is a mass of burning gases, let us apply our God-given spec- 



56 CAIN'S WIFE. 

troscope, the faith faculty, to the Sun of Righteousness, and 
we will discover that He hath arisen with healing in His wings, 
and as we stand lost in wonder, love, and praise, adoring 
Him, we 

"See, from His head, His hands, His feet, 
Sorrow and love flow mingled down. 
Could e'er such grace and sorrow meet, 
Or love compose so rich a crown?" 

The scientists have invented the radiometer, which they 
declare capable of measuring the heat of a candle a mile away. 
That may be easily called scientific perfection. I believe the 
human soul in its first estate was a radiometer which could 
measure the love and blessing of God to the highest degree; 
but the Devil broke in upon the sacred domains of man's 
purity and despoiled his faith faculty, that spectroscope of 
the soul, and poisoned his love to God, which is the radiom- 
eter of the soul; and by making him a slave to passion, greed, 
avarice, and crime, he despoiled the micro-spectroscope of serv- 
ice to God, and man has been roaming the barren wastes of 
life's sandy deserts, and ofttimes caravans, brigades, and regi- 
ments of the race have been completely annihilated by the 
deadly simoons of the Devil's wrath which have blackened 
man's moral universe. 

I he Incarnation of Christ is a divine as well as a human 
necessity. God created man and man became a vagabond 
and an outcast; he could not keep the law of God in his fallen 
condition; he therefore became a moral bankrupt, and my text 
to-night says: "The Revelation became flesh and dwelt among 
us, and we beheld His glory." The Offering for humanity's 
sin must of necessity be human, and the Intercessor or Medi- 
ator between God and man must of necessity be not only di- 
vine, but the very God. Deity can only experimentally under- 
stand Deity; humanity can only experimentally understand 



CAIN'S WIFE. 57 

humanity. In order that God's side of the case may be thor- 
oughly appreciated, the purity of eternal law completely under- 
stood, God himself must intervene; and in order that the power 
of temptation and the weakness of fallen humanity may be 
fully realized, the Revelation became flesh and dwelt among 
us, and He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet with- 
out sin. Man's offering for sin which could hope to satisfy 
the demands of broken law — God's holy law — must be with- 
out spot or blemish. No man upon earth could render such 
an offering to God Almighty. God could have spoken with 
the voice of many waters, or He could have sent crashing up- 
on the sin-burdened race a million chariots of fire, rolling and 
burning as they rolled, accompanied by the tempestuous voice 
of ten thousand thunder-bolts; the mountains and the seas 
could have become a rolling, seething mass of flame, had God 
unchained his royal steeds of fire. The Word of God declares 
no man can see God and live. Because of man's impurily of 
heart and decrepitude of character resulting in a damnable 
record, there is within him a soul-shuddering fear of God. Man 
in a physical sense is composed of mutable substances; change 
and decay characterize the human organisms. Science says 
when we begin to live we begin to die. All the cells and tis- 
sues of your body are different to-night from what they were 
seven years ago. God is eternal, indestructible, immutable, 
excarnate, and intangible. God is a Spirit, and they that wor- 
ship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Suppose 
I hold in my hand a carnation; it is called by the scientists a 
sun plant; in other words, it can neither be produced nor live 
without the sunlight; but if I charter a ray of light and dash 
away through space to the chambers of grand old Helios, chief 
of the solar system, I discover my carnation wilting, and at 
last parched and burned to dust and ashes. It cannot live in 
the immediate presence of the sun. Man can no more live 
without God in a spiritual, moral, and physical sense than the 



58 CAIN'S WIFE. 

carnation can live without the sun. Man is a God plant. If 
God should suddenly withdraw Himself from the universe, it 
would become the scene of indescribable destruction; shattered 
remnants of worlds and diaphanous tails of comets accompanied 
by siroccos of star dust and burning fragments of suns in 
wild confusion would impregnate this veritable deperdition with 
wild disorder. I am not saying, nor do I believe, that the 
earth or the planets or space is God; but I am absolutely sure 
all visible and invisible, celestial, terrestrial, and terraqueous 
existences depend upon God's personal presence for existent 
continuity. 

When Jesus Christ, the Revelation of God, spoke with 
human voice, and touched with human hand, and saw with 
human eyes, and stepped with human feet, and felt your lim- 
itations and mine, and met your enemies and mine, and said to 
one and all, "Get thee hence, for it is written, Thou shalt love 
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,'" He won 
a victory over sin and Satan for every struggling, defeated sin- 
ner on the earth; and at last, when He shed His blood on the 
cross of Calvary, He opened the fountain in the House of 
David for sin and for uncleanness, in which the record of the 
past will lose its scarlet or crimson or black stain, thank God! 
in which we can wash our robes and make them white, for 
His blood is the blood of the Lamb slain before the founda- 
tions of the world. 

Men complain to me about the miracle. According to 
law, the law of gravitation, there is weight enough above our 
heads in the roof of this building to kill any man or woman 
it fa!ls upon, and yet it does not fall. Has a miracle been 
performed? Stupid skeptics say Nature's laws cannot be ab- 
rogated. How is it that bells weighing hundreds of thousands 
of pounds can swing in the belfry one hundred or two hundred 
feet above the earth's surface? Has a miracle been per- 
formed? Certainly not. Another law intervenes and suspends 



CAIN'S WIFE. 59 

temporarily the action of the law of gravitation, and establishes 
temporary security and stability to the belfry, the bell, and the 
people below the bell. Man has the power to abrogate, mod- 
ify, and even control or set z side some of Nature's laws. If 
man has this power, the Creator of man is not overreaching 
His bounds when He exercises this prerogative. The sub stra- 
tum of all science worthy of the respect of intelligent humanity 
is the law of cause and effect. 

Unitarians, atheists, and vile profane infidels unite in 
speaking in foul and vulgar suggestiveness regarding the birth 
of Jesus Christ. People have been speaking regarding the 
miracle of His birth; the miracle of His healing the blind, 
the sick, the maimed, and the halt; the miracle of His having 
raised the dead; the miracle of His resurrection and the mir- 
acle of His ascension. I propose to advocate a different doc- 
trine, and in the- name of religion and common sense — accord- 
ing to the law of cause and effect — I will say there was noth- 
ing miraculous about His birth and nothing miraculous about 
His marvelous works, which overwhelmed humanity with the 
riches of divine love and mercy. I admit that He gave many 
signs of His mission, many specific credentials proving; His 
Deity and the fact that He fulfilled Messianic prophecy. In 
regard to His birth, I want {o say: God created man and He 
created woman and gave her the power to conceive and be- 
come the mother of children. The God who created woman 
and gave her this phenomenal power spoke the command and 
ordered woman's physiological functions into actfon without the 
intervention of any human help; the result was the birth of 
the only begotten Son of God. That was not a miracle. It 
would have been a miracle had the Virgin conceived and given 
birth to the child without human of divine interposition; but 
for the Creator to speak the word and give the command as 
the eternal First Cause of all life, the fact logically follows 
in physiological and philosophical order that childbirth must 



60 CAIN'S WIFE. 

occur. Instead of calling the birth of Jesus Christ a miracle, 
I simply describe it as Deity in action, God's power evidenced. 

I hold in my hand a watch. Can inanimate gold, steel, 
glass, brass, and other metals tell the time of day? You an- 
swer, "No." But I take the raw materials and place them 
in the hands of the inventor, who with his furnace and his forge 
at last presents to the world a timepiece which is the monu- 
mental evidence of his superior intellectual and inventive genius. 
Has a miracle been performed? Again you answer, "No." 
That watch simply indicates humanity's genius in action. Sup- 
pose it has never in its mechanical parts ticked off a single 
hour, and the maker of the watch winds it and starts it run- 
ning. Has he performed a miracle? I say, "No." It would 
be a miracle if the gold and silver and brass and steel and 
glass could assemble their parts together by a fortuitous concur- 
rence of atoms, and suddenly become a watch ticking the sec- 
onds as they rush us on to eternity. But when man assem- 
bles the parts and makes the watch, the miraculous in no wise 
appears. According to science, a sufficient cause has produced 
a definite effect. 

Men and women whine because the Bible tells us that 
Jesus walked upon the water. Some carpenter built this plat- 
form. If he should walk across it, no miracle would be per- 
formed. It would be a miracle if inanimate wood and steel 
nails should make a carpenter and suddenly walk across him. 
But when man's intellect and muscle presents the cause, and 
the platform is here, the mute effect, we have no right to talk 
miracles. Jesus Christ was God revealed in human flesh. He 
created the water, He mixed the elements which compose it; 
therefore when He spread it out upon tli2 face of the earth 
as a sea or a river and walked upon it, He did not perform 
a miracle. It would be a miracle if water created a God and 
should walk upon Him. But when Jesus, the Revelation of 
God, walked upon the water which He had created, He dem- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 61 

onstrated the fact that God's laws which act reversely for man 
are conversable and convergent with God. 

The record tells us that Jesus, the Revelation of God, 
raised Lazarus and the son of the widow of Nain, and the 
daughter of Jairus from the dead. Again the illogical and 
stupid adverse critic and the contemptible infidel raise their 
hands, pretending terrible shocks because of this miraculous 
power. I want to say to you, it was no miracle when Jesus 
displayed his God-given credentials in raising Lazarus from 
the dead. It would have been a miracle had Lazarus and 
the others raised themselves from the dead, and I think I can 
make this very clear to you. We will therefore convert mys- 
tery into mathematics, and from this time forth our hearts will 
burn within us as we walk and talk with Jesus by the way. 
The laws of disintegration and decomposition over which the 
King of Terrors (Death) has so long borne sway, dictate to 
every greedy germ and microbe that they set to work to sati- 
ate their horrible appetites the moment the spirit returns to God 
who gave it, and leaves the body cold and lifeless. Lazarus, 
for instance, had been dead four days, and his sister declared, 
"Master, by this time the smell must be offensive, for this is 
the fourth day since his death." Jesus replied: "Did I not 
tell you that if you would believe in me, you should see the 
glory of God?" He then prayed this short but significant 
prayer: "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard my 
prayer. I know that Thou always hearest me, but I say this 
for the sake of the people standing near, so that they may be- 
lieve that Thou hast sent me as Thy messenger." Immediately 
after the prayer Jesus said in a loud voice: "Lazarus, come 
forth." The words were instantly obeyed, and Lazarus sprang 
from the charnel-house into the presence of his astonished and 
delighted loved ones. 

Suppose we consider an engine for a moment. The old 
engineer sits at his post with his hand upon the throttle; the 



62 CAIN'S WIFE. 

engine dashes down the track at the rate of sixty or eighty 
miles an hour. Finally a man swings a red lantern before him, 
and he throws the reverse lever to the last notch and opens the 
throttle until the wheels of that gigantic steed of steel throw 
streaks of fire by friction from the rails; the train comes to a 
standstill, and at last, in order to avoid a wreck, he rushes that 
train back in the very direction from whence it came and enters 
a side-track. Has he performed a miracle? No; he has sim- 
ply evidenced the phenomenal powers of man's mechanical in- 
genuity. It would be a miracle if an engine could grip a 
man with some strange hand of intelligence and reverse the 
actions, experiences, intentions, and purposes of the same, and 
make him do what he does not wish to do. 

When Jesus Christ stood at the grave of Lazarus, Na- 
ture's laws were dashing down the well-ballasted track, carry- 
ing the funeral train of Lazarus at the rate of possibly sixty 
or eighty miles an hour. Jesus, the Revelation of God, man- 
ifest in the flesh, with the hand of the engineer reached out 
and gripped the reverse lever and said to the laws of disinte- 
gration and decomposition, "Halt!" And when He stopped 
them, He spoke to the spirit of Lazarus, and from the Glory 
World that spirit came and entered once more the tenement 
of flesh. Jesus commanded the red corpuscles, the nerve-cells 
and tissues, and every ounce of protoplasm to spring instantly 
into life and health, and Lazarus shot out of that tomb more 
rapidly than he ever went into it. Glory to God ! the Incarnate 
Christ can touch the reverse lever when a man is on his way 
to Hell, and stop him and shoot him up the track to Glory at 
lightning speed. Neighbor, let Him grip the reverse lever of 
your soul to-night. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 63 

"He ever lives above, 

For me to intercede; 
His all-redeeming love, 

His precious blood to plead; 
His blood atoned for all our race, 
And sprinkles now the throne of grace." 

The power of God's Revelation is at its best in revers- 
ing the engines of human destruction, saving man from eternal 
wreckage. Jesus Christ makes the drunkard a sober man. 
He makes the gambler an honest man; He makes the libertine 
a decent man; He has made people who were the foul ones 
of earth the leaders of social purity because they have become 
new creatures in Christ Jesus. 

Some years ago a friend of mine walked down one of 
the streets of a large city, and he saw a dejected-looking spec- 
imen of manhood leaning against a stairway which led up to 
a restaurant. He said to him: "My friend, may I be of any 
help to you?" He replied: "No, partner; I don't think any- 
body can help me." My friend said: "Come up to lunch 
with me." The man looked surprised, and asked: "Do you 
mean that?" He said: "Of course I mean it; come along." 
They sat together at the table and dined. At the close of 
the meal my friend handed him an address and said: "Come 
and see me at two o'clock; I am very busy now, but I can 
talk to you at that time." At two o'clock the men entered 
the side door of that great city mission property which was 
for years a low-grade opera-house. When he entered and 
was shown a seat, he glanced toward the front windows and 
saw a sign which reads: "Jesus Saves." "When my friend got 
around to him, the man was weeping. The superintendent 
of the mission told me the man said: "I have been wondering 
ever since you asked me up to lunch what caused you to do 
it. I might have known it was Jesus Christ. I have been 
rejecting Him for years, but I will reject Him no longer. In 



64 CAIN'S WIFE. 

fact, I had reached my limit, I was down and out; I was con- 
sidering suicide when you asked me into that restaurant." The 
man was wonderfully converted. 

I might have known it was Jesus 
Who called in the busy mart; 

Who sent you with words of comfort 
To cheer my broken heart. 

I might have known it was Jesus 
Who, seeking to save my soul, 

Came pleading in love and mercy 
To cleanse and make me whole. 

I might have known it was Jesus 
Who lifted me from the mire; 

Who filled me with songs of glory, 
To grant my soul's desire. 

I might have known it was Jesus 

Who came from His home above; 

Who suffered and died on Calvary, 
Sent not, but brought His love. 

'h ! I might have known it was Jesus, 
Altho' my sight was dim. 
Who would have died to save me? 
Who could it be but Him? 



CAIN'S WIFE. 65 

Chapter V. 

THE SHADOW LIFE. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

I will read from the fifth chapter of Acts, the 1 4th and 
15th verses: "And believers were the more added to the Lord, 
multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they 
brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds 
and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by 
might overshadow them." 

Everything combining solid substances casts a shadow 
when its relation to the sun is right. At a glimpse you can 
determine the substance by the shadow. You instantly recog- 
nize a horse, a house, a man, a tree, a mountain, by the shad- 
ow cast. This is a physical truth. In the moral sense and 
in the spiritual sense, there is such a thing as the shadow life, 
and a man is known — yea, his value to society is determined by 
his shadow life. I mean, in simple phraseology, his influence. 
Write your name on a card and drop it on any street in your 
town and the man who picks it up, if he knows you, knows 
what that name stands for. I am in this address urging upon 
you the importance of concentrating all the faculties of your 
ransomed powers into strong, stalwart manhood and woman- 
hood which can stand for God and the right with the stabil- 
ity of Gibraltar, defying every wave or tempest! 

The godless of your community spend very little time 
in the study of God's Word; they do not spend much more 
time in the study of the Bible than you church members, but 
they do spend considerable time in studying your shadow life. 
There are men in this audience who can present a shadow- 



6b CAIN'S WIFE. 

graph of most every church member in town. I am anxious 
to impress upon the Christian people of this community the 
power of the shadow life, that life which engenders confidence 
in the integrity of the religion of Jesus Christ which you pro- 
fess. The philosophy of the shadow life is the science of psy- 
chology. Men and women unconsciously set up mental ma- 
chinery. The powerful machine of thought involves many 
years of careful building, and I say to you, when a man has 
erected the machinery out of foul and contemptible material 
and it has been accustomed to running diametrically opposed 
to God's law, the purity and honor of the soul, the integrity 
and stability of morality, it is a hard thing to get a man to 
tear down that machinery and set up a decent workshop and 
begin to build anew. Dishonesty is the dynamics of much of 
the moral machinery of the business world. Impurity is the 
dynamics of the mental machinery of tens of thousands. The 
fire of perdition generates the steam of degradation to run 
the machinery of the soul into eternal wreckage. God says: 
"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." In other word:, 
you are just what you think. We have been running through 
the Bible at breakneck speed, and have hit a few high spots 
here and there, and sometimes we have bounced clear over or 
crawled under some of the mountain peaks. One of the great- 
est statements in Scripture, I think, is the least understood, and 
that verse is Philippians 2:5, which I will translate from the 
Greek as follows: "Be of the same mind with Christ Jesus." 
I propose to show you how telepathy impresses our thoughts 
upon others, and the thoughts of others upon us. Doubtless 
many a time you have been thinking of a certain song, when 
your wife, your husband, or child, or friend, began singing 
the song; or perhaps you both began singing the song in the 
same moment in the same key, or you both said the same thing 
at the same moment. Then you looked surprised and used 
that well-worn sentence which does not explain: "Great minds 






CAIN'S WIFE. 67 

run in the same channel." The fact is, the power of the mind 
not only governs the individual, but as thought flashes out into 
and upon the minds of others, the greatest activities born of 
inspiration are the result. 

Some years ago, in one of the large cities, I saw an inter- 
esting demonstration of telepathy. A pair of cultured people 
from the Orient were giving an interesting demonstration of the 
science of telepathy. The man took a large book, after hav- 
ing blindfolded his wife. He stepped down to where I sat, 
perhaps thirty feet from his wife, and he said: "If you will 
select any paragraph in this book, my wife will read the par- 
agraph through my mind." I took the book and turned care- 
lessly through it and indicated a certain paragraph. The book 
was between the man and myself. The woman slowly but 
accurately read the paragraph. I thought, "Possibly, not prob- 
ably, she has memorized the contents of the entire book and 
by some secret sign he indicates the page and paragraph," when 
he said to me: "If you have something in your pocket, kindly 
hand it to me and my wife will read it." I had in my pocket 
a clergyman's annual permit. I was positive the man had never 
seen my permit before, and was equally positive that his wife 
was a total stranger to my annual permit. He asked: "What 
have I?" His wife answered: "You have a clergyman's an- 
nual permit." He said: "Whose permit is this?" She spelled 
my name, letter at a time, until it was accurately presented. 
The man turned toward me again and I took a $20 gold-piece 
from my pocket; it was one of the last I have ever seen 
(laughter), but I did not part with it on that occasion. He 
said to his wife: "What have I?" She said: "You have a 
gold coin." "Please tell me what the coin is, of what denom- 
ination and government." She said: "A $20 gold-piece, 
United States of America," and .gave the date on the coin. 
The man turned to the people assembled and said: "My wife 
can read my mind." And I thought: "Old fellow, you had bet- 
ter walk mighty straight, for your wife certainly has the drop 



68 CAIN'S WIFE. 

on you." (Laughter.) And then I thought of the thousands 
of women in the world who would be glad to pay considerable 
money to be able to read their husbands' mind. Then he 
said: "I can read my wife's mind." Then I thought of the 
thousands of hen-pecked husbands who moan and chatter like 
pelicans because they are unable to read their wives' mind. 
A friend of mine, in the presence of the same people, handed 
the man a match-box. The man asked his wife to tell him 
what he had in his hand. She said: "You have a box." 
"What kind of a box?" he asked. "A match-box," was the 
answer. "What material is the box made of?" asked the 
man. His wife replied, "Brass." My friend thought sure 
he had them cornered, for his boys had bought the box for 
sterling silver; but he said when he looked at the box, all of 
the silver en one side had worn off and it was plain brass. And 
there stood a blindfolded woman, who had never really seen 
the box, who knew more about the box than the man knew, al- 
though he had carried it five years in his pocket. If there is 
such a thing in the universe as thought-transference, I believe, 
since Jesus ever lives for me to intercede, that His thoughts 
can by His matchless grace flash from Heaven into my soul and 
become my thoughts, His ways can become my ways. The 
philosophy of moving your city for God is when the thoughts 
of Jesus Christ burn in the soul of some man who flashes them 
out into the minds of others until repentance, sorrow for sin, 
prayer, faith, love to God and to man, absolutely engage the 
minds of a whole community until thousands turn to God in 
repentance. The Holy Spirit of God uses every human instru- 
mentality in reaching the human heart, and since the mind, next 
to the eternal spirit of man, is the greatest part of man, I as- 
sure you the Spirit of the Lord uses the thought life in effect 
ing the radical changes for God and righteousness in every 
life and every community. The philosophy of the salvation of 
a community is herein presented. On the othev hand when 



CAIN'S WIFE. 69 

the Devil runs the mental machinery and every thought that 
flashes from the mind is only evil continually, the shadow life 
of such a person becomes inimical to the building up of purity, 
sobriety, righteousness, and godliness, in all the radius of its 
influence. The method of the damnation of a community is 
in the thought life of the community. 

In the light, of this simple but plain explanation, I urge 
again that you allow the mind of Jesus Christ to permeate your 
entire being, surcharging you, protecting you, thus making you 
a live wire for the kingdom of God. 

They are talking considerably now about the color of 
thought. They have been able to discover the color of tone; 
now they have discovered the color of thought. Various meth- 
ods are being tried. The thought seems to make radical 
changes in the physiological organisms. This is essentially 
true, and demonstrations are proving accurately this contention. 
My friends, if the ether can register a disturbance because I 
think, or you think, and can instantly register that disturbance 
in another mind, generating in that mind a similar thought, 
we have a right, therefore, to discuss the power of thought! 
(Amens.) Therefore, logically following, we have led to the 
power of the shadow life. 

Some years ago Munkacsy's famous painting, "Christ Be- 
fore Pilate," was on exhibi ion in Detroit. I believe John Wan- 
amaker paid $1 15,000 for that masterpiece. A rough sailor 
from the Great Lakes came into Detroit, and, going to the 
opera-house where the painting was being exhibited, he asked 
the question: "Is Jesus Christ in here?" The woman at the 
ticket window said: "No, but His picture is." He paid the 
price of admission, bought a little booklet explaining the great 
painting, and was shown to a seat near the platform where 
the picture was splendidly lighted, and he asked the woman 
who showed him his seat several questions. She said when 
she finally left him she began wondering what kind of an im- 



7 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

pression a great picture like that could make on an uncultured, 
rough, profane sailor. Ten or fifteen minutes later she returned 
to see the sailor and to find out his opinion of the painting. 
When she reached him, he sat with his face buried in his hands, 
sobbing like a child. She touched him on the shoulder and 
said: "What do you think about it?" He replied: "Madam, 
I never thought anything about Jesus Christ before. My moth- 
er made me promise to come and see this picture. A man who 
can paint a picture like that must have believed in Jesus, and 
Jesus must have lived and died to save the world, and I want 
Him to become my Savior too." There is so much power in 
the soul of a great artist that he can dip a brush in cold inan- 
imate paint and create such a marvelous picture that the Spirit 
of God can use it to break the heart of a hardened sailor. If 
God can get the intelligence of this audience definitely organ- 
ized into a "Shadow Club," we can take the city for God and 
the right. (Applause.) 

Let us look at the life of Peter a moment, taken as he 
was, from the seine and net, a common profane fisherman, 
called to be a disciple, who, with his enthusiastic nature and 
his unwarranted pride, became a bigot and a backslider, a 
traitor and a blasphemer; then a weeping penitent, then a flam- 
ing Pentecostal preacher, presenting a simple message which 
burned with eternal fire until Jerusalem shook. The text of 
this address is a memorial to the integrity of Peter. There is 
an interesting statement in the Gospel of John regarding the 
call of this man. His brother Andrew had a talk with Jesus 
and found Him to be the Messiah, and he went immediately 
and found his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. When 
Jesus saw him, He analyzed his character at a glance, and 
said: "Thou art Simon, the son of Jona; thou shalt be called 
Cephas." There is a wonderful meaning in the phenomenal 
statement of Jesus. Jesus read the character of this man and 
summed it up in the word which was his name, Simon. The 






CAIN'S WIFE. 71 

Hebrew name invariably meant some character indication; 
Jacob means rascal or swindler; Saul means destroyer; Paul 
means worker; Jabez means sorrowful; Israel means Prince of 
God; Simon means snub nose, and the snub nose as a character 
indication means a vacillating man or woman. Jesus analyzed 
him and saw his sandy foundation, his changeableness of spirit, 
yet withal, his extraordinary enthusiasm, and He said: "I am 
going to solidify your character; I will call you Cephas or 
Peter, which means a rock" Oh, that the galvanic power of 
Heaven might be coupled to every vacillating man or woman 
in this audience until the solidified godliness of soul presents 
a character solid as the granite hills for God and integrity! 
Vacillating Simon said: "Though all men forsake you, yet I 
will never forsake you." Spirit-filled, flint-faced Peter said: 
"Put away, therefore, all wickedness, and all guile and hypoc- 
risy and envies, and all evil speakings; and I beseech you, as 
sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war 
against the soul. Finally, be compassionate, loving as brethren, 
tender-hearted, humble-minded, not rendering evil for evil, or 
reviling for reviling, but contrariwise, blessing." It was not 
hero-worship which led the people to carry their sick ones out 
on beds and pallets into the street. It simply was a tribute of 
confidence in a man who was a new creature in Christ Jesus. 
Yonder comes a mother down the street with her sick child. 
Yonder comes a father carrying his invalid son. Yonder comes 
a wife by the side of her ailing husband, who is being carried 
by a friend. 

"What means this eager, anxious throng?" 
The answer comes: 

"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 
But He comes in the form of Peter, the mighty preacher of 
righteousness. I hear the multitudes talking saying: "I hope 
the shadow of Peter in passing by may fall upon my loved 



72 CAIN'S WIFE. 

one." It is a wonderful thing that Peter, by his intrepid cour- 
age, his deep piety, his noble spirit, left his mark upon the 
people of his generation. Tradition tells us that at last, when 
the foul authorities led him off to crucify him, he said: "I am 
not worthy to be crucified as was my Lord. Crucify me with 
my head down." Neighbor, you are certain to leave youl 
mark in this community and in this world. 

Some years ago I sat in a parlor in a Western home, and 
a man handed me a geological formation which had upon its 
surface a fossilized fish. The fish had become its own tomb- 
stone. It evidenced its peculiar species; in fact, according to 
geological calculation, it gave the date of its fossilization. It 
matters not how many centuries have intervened, it matters not 
how deep the dust of antiquity had piled upon the fish, thrown 
perhaps by some volcanic action from the sea upon the shore 
of some unknown ocean, before the morning stars sang together 
or the sons of God shouted for joy. It has left its mark. If 
a fish can thus leave its mark, is it unreasonable to say that you 
will leave yours? Some years ago, when I was in France, in 
one of the great palaces, I saw the table upon which Napoleon 
Bonaparte signed his abdication; compelled by the Powers to 
release the reins of government, the proud and haughty em- 
peror, in a storm of rage, drove an instrument into the surface 
of the table. It was not much more than a scratch, but some- 
body came along and put his finger on that scratch and went 
back to his home and said: "I put my finger on the spot made 
by Napoleon when he signed his abdication." Then ten thou- 
sand others followed and put their fingers on the same spot, 
then hundreds of thousands of others followed the same inquis- 
itive procession and put their fingers upon that spot. To-day 
the table is placed back beyond the reach of the curious throng, 
and the sign reads: "Do not touch the table." The spot orig- 
inally made by Napoleon has been enlarged by the finger-touch 
until I could bury the end of my index finger in that hole. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 73 

I am illustrating a great fact: there are any amount of people 
in the world who would be glad to h-lp you perpetuate your 
mark. If you make a bad move, a bad mark, a bad record, 
the world will know it, generations following you will know it. 
If you make a mark for God and righteousness, the people like- 
wise will know it. If I should engage in a lengthy presenta- 
tion of shadowgraphs of the great men of the world, I think 
you would be inspired to emulate the noble examples: the pa- 
tience and prayerfulness of Abraham Lincoln; the purity and 
unselfishness of Frances E. Willard; the fidelity and zeal of 
D. L. Moody; the theological purity and courage of Charles 
G. Finney ; the loyalty of Abraham, the father of the faithful ; 
the purity of Joseph, who was misrepresented by old Mrs. Pot- 
iphar, and finally jailed for his integrity, but at last, when God 
liberated him and made him prime minister of Egypt, riding 
in the second chariot of the kingdom next to Pharaoh, while 
Colonel Potiphar was at the head of an insignificant compa- 
ny of soldiers four miles in the rear, I wonder how old Mrs. 
Potiphar felt? (Laughter and applause.) 

Judas left a shadow, but it is the shadow of a skeleton, 
eyeless, heartless, brainless, conscienceless, eternally corrupt, 
the monument of infernal traitordom. And there are some of 
his kind in the world to-day. Some of you people who delight 
to heap etithets upon the wretch who sold his Lord for thirty 
pieces of silver have joined his class, for when you sold Jesus 
Christ for a deck of cards or a game of bridge whist, or a 
dance or a theater ticket, you became as low down and repre- 
hensible as Judas; and I want that to soak in. (Applause.) 

Some years ago, in London, a great building was the scene 
of an important event. Members of the aristocracy crowded 
to the side of a coffin which contained the body of one of God's 
noblest women. Finally the great doors were opened and the 
multitudes crowded in by thousands. Amongst the number 
there came a poor woman carrying her babe and leading a 



74' CAIN'S WIFE. 

larger child. She finally reached the coffin and, bending over, 
she put the little child on the floor and told the larger one to 
take care of her; when she bent over the coffin to look upon 
the cold face, the little shawl fell back around her shoulders 
and the tears fell upon the glass which was above the face. 
A guard, noticing that she was stopping the multitude, sprang 
forward, touched her on the shoulder, and said: "Madam, 
you will have to move on; you are stopping the multitude." 
She replied: "Please, sir, don't make me move on; she saved 
my two boys from a drunkard's hell, and I have a right to 
look and to weep." The guard stepped back and held the 
multitude while the woman wept. 

"When my final farewell to the world I have said, 
And I gladly lie down to my rest; 
When sofily the watchers shall say, 'He is dead,' 
And fold my pale hands on my breast," 

I would rather have someone step by the coffin-side and say, 
"He led me to Jesus," or, "He led my husband or my 
child to the Savior," and pay honest tribute to my faithfulness 
as a Christian man, than to have a monument of gold studded 
with diamonds that would pierce the sky. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 7s 

Chapter VI. 

THE JESUS TRAIL. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

The pioneer of the great West knows the value of a trail. 
The Indian was never the maker of a broad-gauged thorough- 
fare paved with brick, stone, or gravel ; he invariably gave per- 
mission to the earth to furnish its own paving for the narrow 
trails which he made in the mountain fastness or upon the vast 
expense of the deserts. A Christian Indian spoke to a mis- 
sionary some time ago about the "Jesus trail." I like the 
thought, and in Matthew 9:9 we have the evidence that Jesus 
expects us to follow His trail. 

Matthew sat at the receipt of custom; Jesus saw him 
and said, "Follow Me." Matthew got up and followed Him. 
There isn't much to the story of Matthew's discipleship, but 
there is a beauty in his instant obedience to the command of 
the Lord Jesus. Since "all we like sheep have gone astray," 
and the characteristic of the sheep's straying is to make greater 
distance to the fold the daily result of its wanderings, we should 
begin to consider the need of the trail leading surely to the fold 
of eternal security. Adam repudiated the security of Eden; 
the Devil, with splendid cunning, palmed off a lie for the truth, 
and death, murder, fraud, deceit, lust, superficiality, hypocrisy, 
bigotry, and distemper have marked his trail. The drunkard 
with his red nose, his bloated face, bleared eyes, fevered im- 
agination, burning stomach, and psychic serpents, has found 
amid the squalor and sorrow of his ill-clad, sad-eyed wife 
and half-starving children, his desolate home, the trail of 
the Devil to be full of remorse, soul anguish, and bitter 



76 CAIN'S WIFE. 

fears. The subtle infamy of modern cults and "isms" ar- 
rayed in the finest fleece, which has been purchased or stolen 
from the blooded lambs, offers to lead gullible humanity 
across the deserts and through the mountains to the City of 
Refuge, and while we are startled repeatedly by the willing- 
ness of some to follow, whom we discover to be pseudo- 
delphians — false brethren — we can but marvel at the combined 
stupidity and rascality of sinful humanity. Christian Science 
has its marble monuments as well as its brass ones, wherein 
natural gas flows with uninterrupted pressure, which is cer- 
tainly not generated in the region of brains, ideal manhood 
or womanhood. Apostles of free love, contemptible renegades 
— advocating open adultery under the soothing pseudonym 
of "affinities," are plying their trade, aided materially by rep- 
robate legislators, while the divorce devil sits with his wand 
in hand, while the rich of the nation grovel before this mon- 
ster in the mire of their degradation and duplicity. The as- 
sassin lurks, the nihilist applies his torch or throws his bomb, 
the anarchist waves his red flag, the socialist moans and chat- 
ters with his cloudburst of words in the midst of his drought 
of ideas; the pulpit puppet palavers and pats his high-browed 
social leaders on the back while he feeds them with a weak so- 
lution of peppermint in homeopathic doses. False doctrines pros- 
per; worse than open infidelity is elected to the presidency of 
the nation, and Jesus Christ is crucified at the polls. In the 
midst of the din and clatter and noise of the maudlin throng, 
while men and devils bid for your soul, a calm sweet voice is 
heard, and in quiet persuasive dignity Jesus speaks: "Fol- 
low Me." 

Matthew was a business man; he was accustomed to de- 
cisive action; he viewed the command from a business stand- 
point; he thought of the great interests connected with the tax 
office; he thought of the money involved, but, thank God! he 
had sense enough to consider the greater interests — the eternal 






CAIN'S WIFE. 77 

security of himself. Jesus did not offer him the rulership of 
Mars, Jupiter, or the constellation of Orion; He simply said, 
"Follow Me." Jesus did not inform him that his record 
would be placed as the first book in the New Testament in 
the twentieth century, and he would be called "Saint" Mat- 
thew. Jesus said, "Follow Me." Jesus did not tell him that 
master sculptors would chisel him in the finest Italian marble, 
while people would bow before the splendid art and pay trib- 
ute to his record of the Sermon on the Mount; He simply 
said, "Follow Me." Matthew must have philosophized as 
follows: "If the Revelation of God has become flesh and 
dwells among us and speaks this Heaven-born command, "Fol- 
low Me,' I count the cost; I will follow." Neighbor, have 
you counted the cost? 

There are thousands in America to-night on their way 
to damnation because they are following the wrong leader. 
It is my purpose to mention a few specific evidences of de- 
feat. First, in business. 

Business Methods. 
The curse of frenzied finance and the attendant panics, 
the spectacular stock exchange gambling, the watered stock, 
the fraudulent "get rich quick" schemes, emptying the purses 
and banks of hard-earned money, evidence corrupt leadership 
and avaricious following. Jesus is not being followed in the 
methods of the average business man, and right here I declare 
the man to be a rascal and not a Christian, whose business is 
not being conducted on the basis of New Testament philos- 
ophy. In one of the Eastern cities, some time ago, a little 
skillet-headed Dauber of Divinity read a simpering paper be- 
fore a ministerial union, asking the question, "Is the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ applicable to the world in the twentieth century?" 
strongly inferring that the Gospel has outlived its usefulness 
and man is educated far beyond its scope. Brethren, I don't 



78' CAIN'S WIFE. 

believe preachers of that sort will bring over twenty cents a doz- 
en in perdition on the auction-block. (Applause.) Men justify 
themselves in disreputable business methods with the statements, 
"There are tricks in all trades," "A man must live," and so on. 
I presume the road agent in the pioneer days of the West had 
tricks in his trade; doubtless the pickpocket has tricks; the gam- 
bler is known to have many tricks. The only trick Jesus Christ 
has ever presented for a business man to utilize in his relation- 
ship with his customers is the Golden Rule. 

Educational Institutions. 
In the second place, Jesus Christ is not followed in the 
educational institutions of our country. In any amount of 
denominational universities and colleges God is denied, Christ 
is a myth or a religious fanatic from the peasantry of Nazareth; 
the Bible is a mess of inaccurate Jewish history, a philosoph- 
ical blur, a prophetical menagerie, a poetical waste-basket, and 
a gospel museum. Charles Darwin is placed above God Al- 
mighty; God did not create man in His own image; the athe- 
istic evolutionist has manufactured another method which re- 
lates man, via a missing link, to the anthropoid ape. I suppose 
if Darwin had said the immediate ancestors of men were of 
the family of the ass or the wild boar, or the hyena, or the 
hippopotamus, these same intellectual parrots would be paid 
denominational money to get up and chatter out their contempti- 
ble infamy. According to natural philosophy, Jesus could not 
walk on the water — so the educators would have you believe. 
Some time ago, in riding through the country in the early spring 
in a Southern State, I heard the robin redbreast make his dis- 
mal failure in trying to sing, but I was unable to see the bird; 
then I heard the peculiar call of the oriole, but I could not find 
the oriole; then I heard the quaint note of the bluebird, but 
he was nowhere in sight ; then the redbird seemed to be break- 
ing his heart with melodies; and when I had possibly heard 



CAIN'S WIFE. 79 

a half-dozen other birds while I was vainly searching for them, 
I saw a fine mocking-bird sitting on the top bough of a beau- 
tiful magnolia tree, making a lot of noise with the songs of other, 
bird folk, and I thought to myself: "The Mimus polyglotlis can 
be found in the human family the same as in the bird family. 
There are too many memory bumps and not enough rugged 
thinkers in the world. Sometimes I see a little professor chirp- 
ing the atheist's song or the evolutionist's song while religious 
parents are paying good money to have their children brought up 
"in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." I believe it is 
time for the Church of God to place real Christian teachers in 
the denominational schools of our country or burn the schools 
to the ground. The Bible is an anchor. I care not how sea- 
worthy the vessel is, if it carries no anchor, it will come to grief. 

American Politics. 
In the third place, Jesus is not being followed in politics. 
All over our country a bunch of imported Americans who have 
dozens of zs and ps and xs in their names are growling about 
the American Sabbath and the "blue laws," when Sabbath- 
desecration is deprecated and saloons are closed on the Sabbath 
day. The attempt to introduce the Continental Sabbath into 
America is simply an effort to debauch the foundation of Amer- 
ican citizenship. The Continental Sabbath is a holiday, and 
not a holy day. It is a day for games, beer-guzzling, hunt- 
ing, fishing, and pleasure-seeking. I believe it is time to say 
to such reprobates: "If you don't like American institutions 
and laws and methods of worship, pack your bandana handker- 
chiefs, crate your dogs, call your lice, and cross the Atlantic." 
(Tremendous applause.) Our worst trouble is not in hand- 
ling the foreign element, but it seems to be in getting thoroughly 
good men into office. Statesmen are scarce. The country is 
full of politicians. I heard a story of an old German who 
many years ago wanted to discover the bent of his boy, pro- 



So CAIN'S WIFE. 

fessionally. He soliloquized as follows: "I will take a silver 
dollar, a bottle of liquor, and a Bible, and place them on the 
table in his room. If he takes the dollar, he will be a business 
man; if he takes the Bible, he will be a preacher; if he takes 
the liquor, he will be a drunkard." So the old father hid him- 
self behind the door to await developments. The boy came 
bounding up stairs, surveyed the table, and exclaimed "Oh!" 
as he saw the three commodities on his table. He picked up 
the dollar, put it in his pocket, placed the Bible under his arm, 
took up the bottle of liquor, and the old man heard the con- 
tents of the bottle "gurgle, gurgle" down the boy's throat. 
The old man, overwhelmed with dismay, sprang from behind 
the door and exclaimed: "Mein Gott, he is going to be a 
bolitician!" (Laughter and applause.) 

Modern Society. 
In the fourth place Jesus Christ is not being followed 
by modern society. The fashion leaders seem utterly depraved 
and debauched in their ideals. Health is given no place in 
their consideration of modes of dress. The modern society 
woman looks like a half-sister to the wasp. Hiram Powers, 
the great sculptor, was in our country some years ago and at- 
tended a fashionable party. He was detected manifesting 
especial interest in a beautifully dressed society woman, when 
a friend stepped up to him and said: "Hasn't she an elegant 
figure?" Powers replied: "I was just wondering where she 
put her liver." The post-mortem examination has revealed in 
our day and generation repeatedly that the liver in the woman 
addicted to tight lacing has been almost entirely cut in two, 
only a small band of tissue holding the pieces together, enab- 
ling life to remain in the parts so nearly severed. The de- 
collete attire is neither conducive to good health nor to the best 
of morals. Of course, the society men of the cities become 
more or less accustomed to the great display of the nude in 



CAIN'S WIFE. 81 

their social intercourse in the fashionable functions, but if you 
were to turn a common Hill-billy from the prairies of Kansas 
or the mountains of Tennessee into the midst of such a bunch, 
he would probably break a brace of plate-glass windows mak- 
ing his escape It is not becoming womanly modesty to see 
these social polliwogs come dancing under the wire at the 
judge's stand with a ninth or tenth knob of their backbones in 
evidence. As a minister of the gospel, I think a woman ap- 
pearing in public should at least wear enough clothing to flag 
a hand-car. I would rather my daughter should appear as 
old-fashioned as a hoop-skirt and have a real sense of mod- 
esty, than to become the most noted genius of the social world 
and lose that delicate charm so beautiful in sweet, modest girl- 
hood. There is not enough premium placed on manhood and 
good character in the social realm; social prestige has degen- 
erated too largely into the passport being a bank account. 
When society demands of womanhood that she shall expect as 
much of purity in blood and character as she gives at the mar- 
riage altar, the basis of the prevention of a great percentage 
of possible marital infelicity shall have been placed before 
American womanhood. The lowering standard of personal 
purity on the part of men, and the lowering demand for purity 
in men on the part of marriageable young women, has become 
an incubator wherein eggs of marital discontent hatch the an- 
nual crop of alfalfa widows in little towns as well as the cities. 
I use the term "alfalfa" advisedly, for in the West it grows 
from three to nine crops per season. The word of God is 
clear in its teaching: "Be not unequally yoked together with 
unbelievers." The Jesus trail leads unerringly to happiness 
in married life — where God is first in the home. I have been 
asked to state a rule for happy marriages; I gladly do so: Do 
as they did at Cana of Galilee; they asked Jesus to attend the 
wedding. Go thou and do likewise. If Jesus were invited by 
the bride and bridegroom and the parents on both sides of the 



82 CAIN'S WIFE. 

house, the divorce devil would bale his supply of snitch law- 
yers and leave America inside of twelve months. (Applause.) 
There is a lot of boasted independence in the twentieth cen- 
tury girl. I admire it when it exists in every sense of the word. 
God give us girls in America whose independence will lead 
them to say "No" to the man of tainted blood and no char- 
acter, no matter how much money he brings in courting her. 
I heard some time ago of a young man whose wife had doubt- . 
less come to her grave because of his venereal diseases, who 
some months after the funeral told a young woman that since 
the terrible breach in his heart had occurred, his wife being 
dead, there was only one in all the world who could mend 
the breach, and informed the young lady that she was the one 
whom he desired to mend the breach. She looked him square- 
ly in the eyes and gave this splendid answer: "Mend your own 
breaches." (Applause.) 

Environment. 
In conclusion, the Jesus trail means that you are blessed 
with good environment. There are lessons deep and grand 
to be learned from one's environment; the granitic stability 
of the mountains, the superb calm of the prairie, the dash- 
ing brilliancy of the mountain stream, the great deep of the 
boundless ocean. Abraham Lincoln, with his ax in hand, 
imbibed the splendid solidity and durability of the oak, hick- 
ory, elm, and walnut trees, his forest companions. The sterling 
worth of these hard woods make up the sum total of the hero 
timber in the character of the great emancipator. Lincoln was 
a great man; he was great in kindness, great in love, great in 
perspective, great in prospective, great in thought, great in heart, 
great in deed. He was once visited by a farmer from south- 
ern Illinois while in the White House. The President insisted 
that the ill-clad farmer dine with him. The farmer tried to 
refuse kindly but was prevailed upon by the good-natured 



CAIN'S WIFE. 83 

President to stay. When the waiter changed the table for 
dessert and placed ice-cream before the farmer — a dainty which 
he had never seen before — he dipped his spoon into it and put 
it hurriedly in his mouth; his eyes dilated, and finally, when 
he was able to swallow it, he exclaimed: "Good gracious, Abe, 
this pudding is froze!" Lincoln tasted his ice-cream and said: 
"Sure enough; waiter, take this out; bring us pumpkin pie." 
Nobody but a great man could meet the ignorance of the 
farmer with such splendid tact. The office does not make the 
man. There is a fable which tells us of a mouse who requested 
the fairy to turn it into a tiger; finally, when a common cat 
came running up, the mouse's heart had not been changed and 
it fled precipitately. The fairy said: "Oh! you have simply 
a mouse's heart; I will have to turn you back into a mouse." 
A man must have hero timber within him before he can be 
unveiled as a hero. Dewey was a hero before he sunk the 
Spanish fleet in Manila Bay and silenced the guns at Cavity. 
Hobson was a hero before he sunk the Merrimac in the harbor 
at Santiago; he was a hero when he supported his widowed 
mother in the South and gave her the love he could have spent 
upon the wanton and degraded, had he been less than a hero. 
William J. Bryan may never be president of the United 
States, and he may never follow my advice and become a 
preacher of the Gospel, but I have seen him evidence the heroic 
timber when others had their glasses filled at the banquet table, 
as an example of Christian manhood worthy the emulation of 
the youth of America — the eloquent Nebraskan repudiated the 
sparkling liquor! I wish I could say as much concerning the 
'"strenuous" gentleman who has carried the "big stick" for sev- 
eral years in America. Savonarola followed the Jesus trail, 
and he was able to stand without hitching when the test came; 
when ordered to walk in the procession which was inimical to 
all he stood for, he replied to the ruler: "I will not walk in 
the procession." "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way 



84 CAIN'S WIFE. 

that leads to life eternal, and few there be that find it." You 
are not going to be crowded in the Jesus trail. The inspira- 
tion of fellowship with the unselfish Savior, the thrill of en- 
nobling impulse which comes to you in following Him, gives 
you strength to look the dark future in the face and say: 

"Where He leads me I will follow, 
I '11 go with Him through the Garden 4 
I will follow on to Calvary." 

By the time you have lost some drops of blood, some 
pounds of flesh, or given some tracts of land and some thou- 
sands of dollars to rescue the perishing, you will begin to un- 
derstand the joy of the life of surrender. The glitter and glare 
of worldly allurements look as cheap as tin toys compared 
with solid gold jewelry, when you have learned the secret of 
His love for others. 

There is in the State of Missouri a lonely grave; a man 
stood beside it one day weeping. A man in passing saw the 
bowed form of a man of middle years; the rider dismounted 
and approached the weeping stranger and said: "Is the one 
buried here a friend?" He replied: "Yes, better than a friend. 
I was sentenced to die when that boy stepped out to the leader 
of that guerrilla band and said: 'I am an orphan; my name 
is Willie Lear; let me die for that man standing there at the 
end; I know his folks; they need him; let him go home; I will 
take his place.' He took my place. I got away to my home. 
I have come back to put this piece of stone at the head of this 
boy's grave." The man looked on the gravestone and read 
these words: "Willie Lear; he died for me." 

If you follow the Jesus trail from Gethsemane to Cal- 
vary, and then to Joseph's tomb, the shadows are long and 
dark. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 85 

"Well might the sun in darkness hide, 
And shut his glories in, 
When Christ the mighty Maker died 
For man the creature's sin." 

For three days we wait and then we find that the grave could 
not hold Him, nor death's cold iron bands. For forty days 
He waits, and, with an occasional visit to His overjoyed disci- 
ples, He instructs them in the way of winning the world; then 
He mounts a cloud and sweeps away to Glory. The Jesus 
trail leads all the way to Heaven. Jesus calls you: "Fol- 
low Me!" 



86 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter VII. 

FISHERS OF MEN. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

Text: "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers o{ 
men." — Matthew 4:19. 

The Christian people of America have been awakened 
to the importance of aggressive personal work, by sermon, song, 
and exhortation, by representatives of practically all the evan- 
gelical denominations. They have discovered that sitting de- 
murely in a church pew on Sunday morning — if the weather is 
pleasant — and hearing the minister deliver his regular message, 
is not following Jesus Christ. The real Christian has also dis- 
covered that membership in the sewing circle is not an evidence 
of membership in the inner circle; that social power does not 
represent power with God; that Jesus is not followed to the 
charity ball, the card table, or the theater; that philanthropy, 
when the gifts have not been bestowed in the name of Jesus 
Christ, is rather selfish and bigoted misanthropy. The settle- 
ment work, professional slumming, studies in sociology, "New 
Thought," so called, and ten thousand other nickel-plated per- 
versions of pure and undefined religion, lead to the brush and 
not to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. 
It logically follows that to follow Jesus we must discover the 
trail of Jesus and what He did at the end of the journey. 
Luke tells us, in the 19th chapter and 10th verse, all we need 
to know in this regard for his message: "The Son of Man 
is come to seek and to save that which was lost." The spirit 
of Christ therefore was, and is, seeking to save the sinner. "He 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." The 



CAIN'S WIFE. 87 

sick most certainly need the physician. I want to be clearly 
understood: You are not a follower of Jesus Christ unless you 
are a fisher of men. Divine authority urges this statement up- 
on me. In Romans 8:9 the inspired apostle presents this im- 
mutable truth: "But if any man hath not the spirit of Christ, 
he is none of His." The compassion of Christ for the mul- 
titudes cannot long dwell in the soul without making you a 
soul-winner. 

The love of God is vital; it is not for our adornment or 
personal decoration. "But God commendeth His love toward 
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 
(Romans 5:8.) The difference between the love of God and 
cold self-centered, surface-giving is explained by the apostle 
in the following language: "And if I bestow all my goods to 
feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have 
not love, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3.) 

We have read much and heard much of modern meth- 
ods of soul-winning, twentieth century evangelism, and some 
other high-sounding propositions. The method of Jesus is 
a divinely authorized method. Jesus was a diagnostician: 
He discovered the disease of the individual in its pathogenic 
and pathological significance; He likewise diagnosed the 
conditions of a city, a nation, the world. The wise phy- 
sician has learned the value of the classification of symptoms, 
with the consequent result, the classification of disease; for 
instance, in the treatment of nervous disorders, conditions 
which have separately been described as "neuroses," "irri- 
table weakness," "general neuralgia," "nervous spinal irri- 
tation," "nervous weakness," "cerebro-cardiac neuropathy," 
and "neurasthenia," are considered psycho-neurotic. All such 
diseases, according to the great European specialists, are 
explained and are treated with greater success in our day 
upon this hypothesis; "Nervousness is a disease pre-eminently 
psychic, and a psychic disease needs psychic treatment." A 



88 CAIN'S WIFE. 

few intelligent questions propounded by the personal worker 
will easily develop the peculiar symptoms of moral or spir- 
itual degeneracy which blight the person with whom the 
work is being done; you will thereby be able to find the 
key to the life. This is just what Jesus did at Jacob's well 
when the woman from the little Samaritan village called 
Sychar came to draw water. Jesus said to her: "Give 
me a drink.' The woman replied: "How is it, since you 
are a Jew, you ask a drink of me, who am a Samaritan 
woman?" It is an historical fact that the Samaritans were 
renegade Jews and were utterly despised by the orthodox 
Jews. Jesus said to her: "If you knew the gift of God, 
and who it is that has asked of you a drink, you doubt- 
less would have asked of Him, and He would have given 
you living water." The woman wanted to know where the 
living water should come from; Jesus informed her that He 
was speaking of the water of life, which, if a man drink, he 
shall never thirst again. The woman immediately desired 
a draught of that eternal water. Jesus said to her: "Go, 
call thy husband, and come here." The woman modestly 
replied: "I have no husband." Jesus answered: "You have 
spoken well, for you have had five husbands, and the man 
with whom you are now living is not your husband." The 
woman answered: "I perceive that you are a prophet." The 
woman immediately gave diligent attention to a brief elu- 
cidation of spiritual worship, and finally mentioned the com- 
ing Messiah. Jesus said: "I that speak unto thee am He." 
The woman left her water-pot and rushed back to the city 
and said to the people: "Come, see a man who told me all 
things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?" Almost the 
entire population of Sychar immediately followed the woman 
to Jesus, and He addressed them and His message brought 
life into their darkened souls. The key to that city was 
a characterless woman. The key to many a life and many 






CAIN'S WIFE. 89 

a city is the sin branded by the Savior in His conversation 
with the woman at the well. 

While it is advisable to discover the specific habit or 
sin which holds captive the indivdual, and treat it with 
special prescriptions from God's laboratory, you must 
remember Jesus never lowered the standard in dealing 
with rich or poor. A rich young ruler became inter- 
ested in Jesus, and hearing that He was in town, he 
came running to Jesus. Wasn't he in a hurry? Jesus, 
beholding him. loved him, and because He loved him, 
He told him the way of personal victory. The young man 
was selfish, avaricious, a lover of money, doubtless a social 
favorite in Jerusalem. Had Jesus been like some modern 
preachers who misrepresent Him in our time, He would have 
patted him on the back and said: "You are a capital chap; 
get Me some invitations into high society, and I will see that 
you are fixed all right." Jesus spoke four words to the 
young man which paralyzed him; the words follow in log- 
ical succession: "Sell, give, follow Me." The young man 
went away sorrowful, for he had great riches. He was 
moral, popular, prominent, rich. His name may be high in 
the social list of perdition to-day, but I would rather have 
in this life the poverty of Lazarus and be sure of eternal 
riches in the life that is to come. Colonel Nicodemus, a 
ruler of the Jews, made a fashionable call one evening; he 
waited until it was dark; he evidently was afraid some of 
his associates would see him on his way to the abode of 
Jesus. He evidently wanted Jesus to pay homage to his 
social and political position, also his knowledge of the law. 
But Jesus considered his morality, his legal training, his 
knowledge of prophecy, and his intellectual genius, and said: 
"Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom 
of God." He could have lowered the standard and made 
a bid for social supremacy through friendship with Nico- 



9 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

dermis. Colonel Nicodemus, you may head the social lists 
of Jerusalem, you may have the finest wines in your cellar, 
you may have the finest Arabian chargers elegantly capari- 
soned, you may have high standing with the government at 
Rome, but if you want your name on the book of life, you 
must be born into God's kingdom. In other words, brethren 
of the ministry, the message of the ministry of this day and 
generation must be the message of Jesus Christ; not "Join 
my Church," but "Join Jesus Christ by repentance and re- 
generation." I have been in towns where the preachers who 
really wanted to hold the standard high found themselves 
facing a contemptible condition on account of some policy 
puppet having a pulpit wherein he sought continually to 
lower the standard. Ministers have told me with trembling 
voices and tear-stained faces: "I have prayed and preached 
for deep consecration amongst the membership of my Church; 
and when I have denounced the popular amusements, some 
of my members have said: 'If we can't go to the dance, 
the theater, the card parties, and belong to your Church, we 
can join such and such a Church; the minister over there says 
there is no harm in it.' " I will describe that kind of a 
preacher in the light of the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 
Timothy, the fourth chapter, where we find these words: "I 
charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who 
shall judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing 
and His kingdom, preach the word, be urgent in season, 
out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering 
and teaching. For the time will come when they will not en- 
dure sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to 
themselves teachers after their own lusts." The inference 
is this: since they have "itching ears," they want some back- 
boneless little masseur to scratch their ears. Sometimes, when 
I open an evangelistic campaign in some communities, these 
nickel-plated hypocrites poke their "itching ears" up in front 



CAIN'S WIFE. 91 

of me and expect to have them scratched. I haul off and 
box fire out of their itching ears! (Laughter and applause.) 

In closing, I want to refer once more to the text. It 
is a command and a promise. "Follow Me" is the com- 
mand, and "I will make you fishers of men" is the promise. 
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, He has given His eter- 
nal word as the pledge that He will make you a fisher of 
men. I will not accept the misrepresentation on your part 
that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, since you are not 
a fisher of men. I will question your veracity, rather than 
the veracity of Jesus Christ. 

Several years ago, when Mark Guy Pearse, of England, 
was in our country, he related an experience of his which pre- 
sents a splendid suggestion to the soul-winner who seeks the 
successful method. He said he was out fishing for trout; he 
had toiled wearily, but had caught none. His paraphernalia 
was excellent, but he was unable to catch the wary trout. 
Finally he came upon an old, rough-looking fisherman, whose 
sack was well-filled with trout. He asked the old gentle- 
man to tell him how he happened to be so successful. The 
old man answered: "There be three rules to follow in fish- 
ing for trout: first, Keep yourself out of sight; second, Keep 
yourself further out of sight; third, Keep yourself still further 
out of sight." The preacher walked away musing upon this 
thought: "That is the best advice I have ever heard for 
becoming a successful fisher of men. I must \eep myself 
out of sight and put Jesus Christ in full view." The words 
of Jesus clinch this idea: "And I, if I be lifted up, will 
draw all men unto Me." Sometimes the hooks of sympathy, 
love, tenderness, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, 
persistence, are tempered in the furnace of affliction and 
hammered out on the anvil of sad experience. Some of the 
best workers in the world are people whose broken hearts 
were mended by the Savior. I have a friend in Chicago 



92 CAIN'S WIFE. 

who had the day set for her wedding, but that day she at- 
tended the funeral of her husband-to-be. Her heart was 
broken, her plans were shattered, but finally the Spirit of 
God called her and she has won multitudes of the poor of 
that city to Jesus Christ. A woman from a family of high 
social standing in England sat upon a platform one night 
while a friend of mine addressed a great congregation of 
drunken men and women. During the message she felt im- 
pressed to pray for the salvation of a dissolute-looking woman 
who sat not far from the front. When the sermon was con- 
cluded, she stepped down and urged the woman to give her 
heart to Jesus. She told her of God's love. The woman 
heard the incredible news and said: "Maybe God loves me, 
but you don't." Thereupon the woman said: "Yes, I love 
you, and I want you to become a Christian." The wretched 
woman replied: "If you love me, kiss me." It isn't an 
easy thing for a woman of wealth and social position in 
England to be seen talking to a person of that sort, and so 
she hesitated long enough to ask God for His leading. The 
Spirit seemed to say: "Kiss her for Jesus' sake." She im- 
mediately kissed the cheek of the drunken woman. The act 
seemed to break her heart; she was immediately led to Christ. 
That kiss became a hook of sympathy and love which caught 
the drifting woman. 

When I was a boy, it was my good fortune to read a 
story which I have never forgotten. A Scotch shepherd in 
the Highlands had counted his sheep as he had placed them 
in the fold, and discovered that three were missing. He 
went to the cabin, where the collie lay in a corner with her 
puppies; he held three fingers before her and said: "There 
are three sheep missing; go out at once and find them." 
There was a bitter storm blowing, but the dog bounded out 
into the storm and was gone for hours, and finally, when he 
heard her scratching at the cabin door, he opened it and 



CAIN'S WIFE. 93 

saw two sheep which had been missing. The dog bounded 
into the cabin; he closed the door and carried the sheep ten- 
derly to the fold. He counted them again, thinking possibly he 
had made a mistake, but he discovered that one sheep was 
still missing. He ran into the cabin; holding one finger before 
the dog, he said: "There is one sheep missing; go out and 
find it." The dog whined as she faced the blizzard, but 
sprang bravely into the face of the storm and was away. 
Four hours later he heard her scratching feebly at the cabin 
door; he sprang to the cabin door, the dog slowly entered; 
she had found the sheep that was lost. He carried the 
sheep into the cabin. The poor dog, beaten by the storm, 
torn by the thorns, made an unsuccessful attempt to reach 
her puppies as they cried in the corner, and she fell dead at 
his feet. She had served well her master for her meat. God 
pity the heartless disobedient church member who sees the 
good Shepherd pointing toward the mountains of sin where- 
on thousands of lost ones are wandering down the trails of 
Satan to eternal night, while they sit with self-complacency 
in the church pew or in the comfortable home unmoved as 
they witness the spectacle of impending destruction. Church 
member, heed the command of the Head of the Church: 
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." 



94 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter VIII. 

THE BOOK OF LIFE. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

I am going to read from the Twentieth Century New 
Testament a warning found in the twentieth chapter of Rev- 
elation: "Then I saw a great white throne, and Him who 
was seated on it; the earth and the heavens fled from His 
presence, and no place was left for them. And I saw the 
dead, high and low, standing before the throne, and books 
were opened; then another book was opened, the Book of 
Life, and the dead were judged according to their actions, 
by what was written in the books. The sea gave up its 
dead, and Death and the Lord of the Place of Death gave 
up their dead, and they were judged one by one, each ac- 
cording to his actions. Then Death and the Lord of the 
Place of Death were hurled into the lake of fire. This is 
the second death — the lake of fire. And all whose names 
were not found written in the Book of Life were hurled in- 
to the lake of fire." 

My text in the old version reads: "And whosoever was 
not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake 
of fire." 

I am accustomed to speaking to thousands of strangers 
every day. I do not show a lack of interest in your wel- 
fare when I say I do not care whether I know your name 
or not. I am evidencing my greater interest in your welfare 
when as a stranger I urge upon strangers the necessity of hav- 
ing your names in a 9ure place — the Book of Life. The 
lesson I read gives you a. glimpse of certitude, destiny, eter- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 95 

nity! It is one of the most significant warnings of all the 
Scriptures. The tragedy of the picture is overwhelming! 
Are you to be hurled into the lake of fire from the judg- 
ment bar of God? Is your boy to be hurled into the lake 
of fire? You love him with all the tenderness of a mother's 
love and with all the indulgence of a father's love; I ask 
you the question, "Is he safe, is his name written there?" Is 
that sweet daughter of yours to be hurled from the judgment 
bar of God into the lake of fire? 

When I was a boy I remember standing one day, near 
the close of the afternoon, by my father's side, out in the 
wood-yard, some distance from the house. I looked into the 
hog-lot still farther away, and I saw the hogs scampering in 
all directions across the lot, carrying hay and leaves and 
placing them in a corner. My question was: "What are 
those hogs doing?" My father replied: "They are getting 
ready for a storm; that is a sure sign of bad weather." I 
have thought of it many a time since in the light of the in- 
difference, the criminal indifference, of mothers and fathers, 
who, knowing the terrors of the Lord, the impending disaster, 
the overwhelming storm of God's wrath, the inexorable cy- 
clone of divine justice, which will absolutely overturn the 
self-righteous, the infidel, the agnostic, the profane, the im- 
pure, the false, the untrue, the despicable, the debauched, 
and all who know not our Lord — all whose names are not 
written in the Book of Life. The solemn charge I bring is 
this: these parents who are concerned about the physical com- 
fort of their children are utterly unconcerned about their 
eternal comfort; they let them drift heedlessly on toward the 
lake of fire without the warning, and allow them to make 
their bed in Hell. In God's name, is the dumb brute capa- 
ble of manifesting more concern for its offspring than man, 
the masterpiece of God's hand? 



96 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Some years ago an Eastern trunk line wanted to change 
the wording of its warnings for the use of the crossings. 
They offered a prize of $2,500 for the most suitable warn- 
ing. Three words won the prize. We hear of men being 
paid a dollar a word for magazine articles about hunting 
trips in Africa; this man received $833 1-3 per word for 
his contribution to the saving of human life. The words 
follow: "Stop, Look, Listen." My text is just such 
a warning. I believe, my friends, we have come to the 
crossing of the ways to-night, the trunk line over which mill- 
ions of "double-headers" bound for Glory have thundered 
throughout the ages. Accepted mercy will save your soul; 
rejected mercy will damn you eternally. The Word of God 
is the savor of life unto life or of death unto death; life if 
you accept Jesus Christ, death if you reject Jesus Christ. Is 
your name written in the Book of Life? May God Almighty 
search your hearts as I ask the question. (Many "Amens.") 

Science is dealing considerably in our day with the 
great theme, the conservation of energy. Power enough has 
been wasted, as it has rushed over Niagara Falls during the 
centuries past, to have made thousands of men inexpressibly 
rich. Enough of electrical power has wasted, during the 
centuries of man's ignorance, to have made the deserts blos- 
som as the rose. When we learn how to utilize the heat 
and light of the sun for mechanical purposes, we will dis- 
cover another triumph for the conservation of energy. 

There is in man a tendency toward prodigality in spend- 
ing that which is most precious, consuming the forces of his 
nature upon the lusts of his flesh; energy and anxiety are 
misdirected. The prodigal son was not only a financial but 
a moral bankrupt. He was a bankrupt morally and spir- 
itually before he ever became a bankrupt financially. There 
are men of splendid ability in your city, whose talent is all 
directed toward establishing a large bank account, or fat- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 97 

tening hogs for market, or shipping cattle, or buying lands, 
or building houses. All these things are advisable, and in 
a measure are essential to the physical and temporal comfort 
of humanity; but God pity the man who looks no farther 
than the present moment. What kind of a home do you 
expect to have throughout eternity? 

Some years ago a woman carried her little babe in- 
to the office of one of the leading oculists of America. 
She said: "Doctor, do not withhold from me the true 
condition. Please tell me if the worst must come." The 
physician took the little child into the dark room and 
examined her eyes very critically. When he carried the 
child back to her mother there was something in his face 
which indicated his personal sorrow, and, fearing the re- 
sult, he held the child while he told the mother the sad news. 
He said: "I am very sorry to tell you, madam, but in less 
than sixty days your baby will be totally blind. It is im- 
possible to save her eyes." The woman screamed, "My God, 
my baby blind, my baby blind!" and fell in a faint. They 
carried her to a lounge; restoratives were applied, and when 
she was revived she sat sobbing, "My baby blind!" 

I want you to heed the warning of the Incarnate Son 
of God. He has said substantially that you would better 
be maimed anl halt and blind than to be lost. I believe 
a man could better afford to suffer the worst that earth's 
heartlessness and Hell's criminality could bring upon him 
than to be lost. I stood in the State hospital for the insane 
in a Western city some time ago and I talked to a Scotchman 
who thought he was in Hell. The attendant said to him: 
"Charlie, where is your soul?" He replied: "I have no 
soul; I lost my soul in Ward Eight." Then, with splendid 
logical connection, he related the story of how his mother 
had failed to sign a contract for him when he was a boy, 
which would have meant steady employment, and he said 



98 CAIN'S WIFE. 

he cursed his mother and lost his soul because he cursed her. 
He has the idea that Hell is getting larger all the time, and 
that if he had committed suicide, he could have averted the 
calamity of Hell's enlargement. There he sits, a blank men- 
tally, bemoaning the loss of his soul. Realizing that his 
mother was a true Christian and died in the faith, the only 
intelligent things he seems capable of saying are those which 
relate to the beautiful life of his mother and his own wicked- 
ness in cursing her. Mental bankruptcy is preferable to eter- 
nal banishment from God. In an insane asylum in the State 
of Tennessee a woman is kept whose constant wail is: "Don't 
you see them cutting up my children? Oh, please stop them! 
don't let them cut up my children!" That poor woman thinks 
continually that she sees someone with heartless cruelty cut- 
ting her children into pieces. Better suffer that, my friend, 
as a state of mental torture here, than to suffer in Hell 
eternally. 

There are people in this community who seem to think 
it would be a great accommodation to the Lord Jesus Christ 
if they were to join some Church. You may be rich here, 
but if your name is not in the Book of Life, you will be a 
pauper throughout eternity. Some years ago a prominent 
Sunday-school worker visited an old school-mate of his who 
was very wealthy. The man showed him his vast estate, and 
it is located in the heart of the corn belt of one of the Central 
States; the land is worth from $150 to $400 an acre. Hz 
said to the Sunday-school worker: "William, I have 3,600 
acres here, and there is not one cent of indebtedness upon 
this land." The worker said in reply: "My friend, you are 
certainly a rich man." Touching him on the shoulder, he 
pointed toward the skies and said: "How much have you 
up yonder?" He looked disturbed, vexed, grieved; then, with 
a peculiar pallor of face, he said: "I have not given any 
consideration to that matter; I have nothing up yonder." 



CAIN'S WIFE. 99 

Two or three months later he died, and the estate has been 
in the courts for years; relatives are fussing over the lion's 
share. Rich here, a pauper for eternity. I believe the in- 
telligent man or woman must get to the place where they can 
not only sing but live the words: 

"Lord, I care not for riches, 

Neither silver nor gold; 
I would make sure of Heaven, 

I would enter the fold. 
In the Book of Thy Kingdom, 

With its pages so fair, 
Tell me, Jesus, my Saviour, 

Is my name written there?" 

Let me read the scene described by the Word of God 
again: "Again I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat 
on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away; 
and there was found no place for them. And I saw the 
dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books 
were opened; and another book was opened, which is the 
Book of Life; and the dead were judged out of those things 
which were written in the books, according to their WORKS. 
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and Death 
and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And 
they were judged every man according to their WORKS. 
And Death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This 
is the second death. And whosoever was not found writ- 
ten in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." I 
have read this account the second time in order that I may 
impress upon you the fact that God keeps books. We have 
Federal books, State books, county books, city books; the 
business man keeps books, the banker keeps books, the in- 
surance companies keep books. If your check is worth any- 
thing, your name, with proper credits, must be found on the 
books of the banker. If you expect to receive an endowment 



ioo CAIN'S WIFE. 

from a life insurance company or if your family or heirs are 
to receive any benefit at the time of your death, your name 
must appear on the policy and on the books of the insurance 
company. This leads me to say, while I am not working 
for any insurance company, that thousands of men are drink- 
ing up, or chewing up, or smoking up, the price of a $5,000 
or a $10,000 insurance policy every year. They are giving 
the contemptible excuse that they can't afford to pay the pre- 
miums for the protection of wife and children. Many a 
widow is in distress to-day, washing to support her half-clad, 
hungry children, or led into a life of shame to support them, 
because of the selfishness and stupidity of her husband be- 
fore his death. If your property burns, you are not apt to 
receive any benefit from the insurance company unless your 
property has been insured in the same. You reply, "I have 
sense enough to know that," and I am sure that you have 
not overestimated your common sense in matters of property 
or life insurance. Have you had sense enough to get your 
name on an eternal insurance policy? Is your name written 
there? 

Some years ago a friend of mine was conducting a 
meeting in a Northern State, and he had repeatedly urged a 
prominent business man to get right with God. The man 
claimed that there was no need of immediate action; that he 
had plenty of time. When during the course of the meeting 
my friend met him on the street as he was apparently in a 
great hurry, and stopped him, he asked the business man why 
he was in such a hurry. He said: "I have just discovered that 
the insurance on my house and my business expired yesterday at 
neon, and a piece of carelessness on my part has endangered all 
the property I own." The minister said: "I don't see that 
you need to be in any special hurry about it; you have plenty 
of time." "Plenty of time?" said the man in an incredulous 
tone; "why, man, if my property should burn to-day, I would 



CAIN'S WIFE. ioi 

be a bankrupt." The minister replied: "You are a spiritual 
bankrupt, and if you were to die to-day, you would be lost 
forever. You have no eternal insurance, but you have been 
telling me repeatedly that you have plenty of time in which 
to get right with God." The business man said: "I have 
never looked at it in that light before." He passed on and 
took care of his property insurance, and in the meeting that 
night he took care of his eternal insurance. Go thou and do 
likewise. 

It is a wonderful thought to me that God loves the 
sinner; a marvelous thing that Jesus left His home in Glory 
and came to the wicked world to save it from eternal disaster. 

"I am so glad that our Father in Heaven, 
Tells of His love in the Book He has given. 
Wonderful things in the Bible I see; 
This is the dearest, &at Jesus loves me." 

Not only is God interested, but the angels likewise are 
interested. The Word of God says there is joy in the pres- 
ence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 

"When a sinner comes, as a sinner may, 

There is joy, there is joy. 
When he comes to God in the gospel way, 

There is joy, there is joy. 
There is joy among the angels, 

And their hearts with music ring, 
When a sinner comes repenting, 

Bending low before the King." 

When your name is written in the Book of Life, God 
knows it; the Saviour knows it; the Holy Spirit knows it; the 
angels know it; and you know it! "Is your name written 
there?" 

"Ring the bells of Heaven, there is joy to-day, 
Foi a soul returning from the wild; 
See, the Fathei meets him out upon the way, 
Welcoming His weary, wandering child." 



102 CAIN'S WIFE. 

One day the disciples returned to Jesus after a mission- 
ary trip, and they were full of joy. They said: "The very 
devils are subject unto us." Jesus admonished them not to 
rejoice because evil spirits were cast out at their command, 
and that they were able to heal the sick; He said: "Rejoice 
rather because your name is written in the Book of Life." 
My soul rejoices to-night, my name is written there! 

God does not keep books as they are kept on the earth. 
Suppose I go to the chief of police in any great city of our 
country, and ask him to give me a list of the pure women 
and the noble men in his city. He would express great as- 
tonishment, no doubt, and would say: "I do not keep such 
a list." Then I ask: "What kind of a list do you keep?" 
He points me to the criminal records, and he says: "I have 
a list of criminals; we have here a rogues' gallery. I can 
show you photographs of the worst criminals of two conti- 
nents." Down here the city officials omit the righteous from 
their records; up yonder the heavenly officials omit the un- 
righteous from the Book of Life. Neighbor, if your name 
is not in the Book of Life, you can never enter Heaven. Is 
your name written there? The gospel invitation grows sweet- 
er to me year by year. It has been to me a source of great 
joy to take tens of thousands by the hand and hear them 
confess Jesus Christ before men. God invites the entire fam- 
ily when He sends the invitation to a man. God does not 
want the mother to forget the child. He does not want the 
father to forget the mother. God's invitation reads: "Come 
thou, and all thy house, into the ark." That means a united 
home here and a reunited home in Heaven. 

Some years ago, when I was conducting the first union 
meetings ever held in the district of Alaska, I was asked to 
the home of a prominent jobber in one of the cities, to take 
dinner. "While I was there a woman called and asked for 
a conference. She told me a sad story. She was a very 



CAIN'S WIFE. 103 

refined and cultured-looking woman; she spoke with the re- 
serve indicative of good breeding. She said her husband's 
death had been followed by so much legal conflict in regard 
to the estate that she had left her home in Oregon hoping to 
make money enough in Alaska conducting a boarding-house 
to enable her to go back and fight for her property. She said: 
"The change of climate was severe and I became very ill 
after reaching Alaska. The money I brought with me has 
practically been exhausted; in fact, I have had to wash dishes 
in a hotel kitchen, the first time I ever did such work in my 
life, as I was raised in a home of luxury and never had to 
work. My health is failing; I am unsaved. I want you to 
lead me to Christ. My son is back in Oregon, doing all that 
he can do to take care of our interests, but I feel that I must 
have special help." We prayed with the broken-hearted 
mother, and she was soon enjoying the peace that passeth all 
understanding. Three days later I was called to the Cath- 
olic hospital by a special messenger. When I was shown 
into the room, the Sisters brought me a crucifix and candles. 
I thanked them kindly, but refused the offer. I stepped to 
the bedside; there lay the woman whom I had led to Christ 
three days before. The pallor of death was upon her face, 
but the peace of God was in evidence. She said: "How 
long will it be before I can get my boy to my bedside?" 
I figured it up; they had no cable line to Alaska in those 
days; it would be ten days, at least, before a message could 
reach the boy and bring him to the mother's side, and as I 
looked upon her it seemed to me impossible for her to live 
more than two hours. I think it was one of the saddest 
scenes I have ever witnessed. The frail little mother thou- 
sands of miles from her loved ones, bravely fighting a hard 
battle for the interests of her children, dying but not defeated. 
I have thought of the sadness that must have swept over the 
hearts of her children when the sad news reached them. I 



io 4 CAIN'S WIFE. 

wondered how I would feel under similar circumstances. 
Think how you would feel. I have thought since that it 
makes very little difference how far apart our graves shall 
be; if our names are all written in God's book, the Book of 
Life, there will be an eternal reunion. Most families have 
scattered loved ones throughout the world's busy marts. Let 
us be more concerned about the eternal reunion than we have 
ever been before. "For all whose names were not found 
written in the Book of Life were hurled into the lake of 
fire." Is your name written there? 






CAIN'S WIFE. 105 

Chapter IX. 

GOD'S MOUNTAINS. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

"And He carried me away in the spirit to a great and 
high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jeru- 
salem, descending out of heaven from God." — Revelation 
21:10. 

Man's vision measures his usefulness. The wise man 
spoke truly when he said: "When there is no vision the peo- 
ple perish." The mountain peak offers, according to its alti- 
tude, the rarest visual point of the earth. There are several 
mountains of God which are irrevocably interwoven with 
human progress, for they evidence God's special interest in 
man. Without any lengthy discussion of these mountains, I 
want to present some peaks for your consideration, and as I 
change from history, in the beginning of my message, to ex- 
perience, in the close of the message, I urge upon one and 
all the importance of reaching the summit of God's glorious 
mountains. The first historical mount I will mention is: 

1. Mount ARARAT. "And the ark rested in the 
seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon 
the mountain of Ararat." God planned the journey of the 
ark before the morning stars sang together, or the sons of 
God shouted for joy. When gigantic geological disturbances 
rocked the massive earth, and shook the firmament, the moun- 
tains of Ararat leaped skyward, and, thank God! they got 
high enough to reach the bottom of Noah's ark. There is 
never a sea of sorrow or incertitude so boisterous 'mid the 
tempest but that the frail bark which carries its cargo of sor- 
rowing humanity can strike bottom on the summit of God's 



106 CAIN'S WIFE. 

promise and rest calmly while the waters of distress and soul- 
anguish decrease continually until the tops of the mountains 
are seen. God values the soul far above all worlds, and 
when man's soul was drifting, God raised the mountain peaks 
of promise high enough to furnish eternal security for tempest- 
tossed humanity. 

The second mount I want to mention is: 

2, Mount SiNAI. God's law was given there. God 
in person met Moses, and while the mountain quaked and 
smoked, and the earth trembled, and the people shuddered, 
God commanded that they should not touch the mountain, 
lest they die. If the mount upon which God gave His law 
became so sacred because of His presence, what think ye of 
the law? Dare you become a law unto yourselves? Will 
you break with impunity God's immutable law? The wil- 
derness experience must cease. Humanity must not leave its 
bones to bleach in the wilderness of sin where degradation and 
sorrow, the harbingers of death, hover about to entrap the 
unwary or the rebellious, unregenerate man. 

"And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp 
to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the 
mountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, 
because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke 
thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole 
mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet 
sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, 
and God answered him by a voice. And the Lord said 
unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break 
through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish." 
The official record here indicates the terror of the presence of 
the Lord. God is omnipresent. May He pity the wretch 
who thinks himself immune because judgment is not executed 
speedily against the workers of iniquity! 



CAIN'S WIFE. 107 

I believe the preachers of this generation should take 
Mount Sinai more frequently as their pulpit and cry mightily 
unto God, and spare not the people until earthquakes of di- 
vine law bring land-slides of salvation into the camp as a 
result of definite conviction of sin. Too many preachers in 
this century are carrying around nothing but a small bottle of 
the balm of Gilead, which they unceasingly pour on the pachy- 
derms of their congregations. 

The law is the school-master to bring sinners to Christ. 
If a man does not feel the conviction of sin, the realization of 
his guilt in God's sight, he will with impunity scorn the ag- 
onies of Jesus and the shed blood, and he will rejoice while 
he is doing despite to the spirit of grace. There never was 
a Mount Calvary until there had been a Mount Sinai. 

The third mount to which I direct your attention is: 

3. The Mount of Transfiguration. You re- 
member Jesus led the disciples to the Father, and there 
He spoke; Elijah and Moses also talked with Jesus, and 
Peter cried out, "Lord, it is good for us to be here." In an- 
other discourse I have described the possibilities of your per- 
sonal transfiguration, the experience which means a new nature. 
There must be a radical regeneration. If you are a "new 
creature," then you are in Christ Jesus; if you are an old 
creature, the Devil owns you from top-knot to shoe-sole. 

The fourth mount for your consideration is : 

4. Mount of Olives. The Garden of Gethsem- 
ane, there upon the side of that historic mount, holds in 
its embrace the prelude of history's greatest drama. Jesus 
wrestled there with the burden of man's guilt until His soul 
anguish broke His heart, and his sweat was as it were great 
drops of blood falling down to the ground. Mother, if you 
want your boy saved, walk down the silent thoroughfare to 
the Mount of Olives in Gethsemane's garden, and wrestle there 
as Jesus wrestled, until angels bring God's answer to your 



io8 CAIN'S WIFE. 

struggling soul. Father, would you have your daughter be- 
come a sweet Christian? Join your wife in Gethsemane's 
garden and plead with God until the answer brings the dawn 
of peace and ushers in her eternal security. Wife, is your 
husband a godless, careless, prayerless wretch? How much 
time have you spent in Gethsemane pleading, "Father, if it is 
possible, if it is possible, save my wicked husband"? Pastor, 
have you a dead church, a wicked, formal, card-playing, danc- 
ing, theater-going bunch of hypocrites who expect to occupy 
mansions among the aristocracy of Heaven? Go to Geth- 
semane and stay there until Jesus gives you the touch of His 
own agony of spirit for the lost. If we would reign with 
Jesus, we must suffer with Him. 

Abraham Lincoln said some time before his death: "I 
have read on my knees the story of Gethsemane where the 
Son of God prayed in vain that the cup might pass from Him. 
I am in the Garden of Gethsemane now and my cup of bitter- 
ness is full to overflowing." Drunken politicians have tried 
to make out that Lincoln did not believe in the Deity of Jesus 
Christ. The above statement is a complete refutation of 
their contemptible pretenses. Speaking to General Sickles, the 
great President said: "I will tell you why I felt confident we 
would win at Gettysburg; before the battle I retired to my 
room and got down on my knees and prayed Almighty God 
to give us victory. I said to Him that this was His cause, 
and that if He would stand by the Nation now, I would 
stand by Him the rest of my life. He gave us the victory 
and I purpose to keep my promise." Not only did Lincoln go 
through Gethsemane's anguish, but he was assassinated by 
a characterless reprobate who considered him a malefactor. 
And this leads me to point you to the fifth mount, which is: 

5. Mount Calvary. Had the aide who accom- 
panied Lincoln to the theater done his duty and stood at 
his post at the entrance of the box, the great crime would not 



CAIN'S WIFE. 109 

have been committed that fatal night. Had humanity kept 
the watch, had man retained his Edenic honor, Jesus would 
never have been crucified. Crucifixion preceded the resurrec- 
tion and ascension. God has never reversed the order. Here 
it is: Gethsemane, Calvary, Burial, Resurrection, Ascension. 
The self life must be nailed to the cross. The Apostle Paul 
has given us a message of victory in Galatians 2:20: "I am 
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live 
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Him- 
self for me." 

"Oh, Jesus Lord, how can it be 
That Thou didst give Thy life for me, 
To bear the shame and agony 
In that dread hour on Calvary?" 

Mount Calvary is the summit of God's love. Without 
the love and the blood of Calvary the world would be in the 
midst of eternal hopelessness. 

The sixth mount is: 

6. Mount Olivet. The ascension evidenced the 
power of Jesus over death and the elements. The Negroes 
of the South sing with great spirit : 

"The cold grave could not hold Him, 
Nor Death's cold iron band." 

Jesus stood on Mount Olivet talking to His disciples 
about their need of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He finally 
said: "But ye shall receive power, the Holy Spirit having 
come upon you; ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jeru- 
salem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most parts of the earth." This promise followed His com- 
mand that they should not depart from Jerusalem until the 
promise of the Father — that is, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, 



no CAIN'S WIFE. 

had been reduced to history. When these gracious words 
had been uttered, a white cloud swept into view, and Jesus 
mounted it and rode away to Glory. His feet shall stand 
again on Mount Olivet, for He is coming back to this world 
to remain a thousand years while the Devil will be chained 
in Hell, and the mightiest revivals of all earth's history will 
be recorded. 

The seventh mount is: 

7. The Mount of Revelation. John stood in 
wonderment upon that mount, having been carried thither 
by the Spirit, and he saw the glory of Heaven, the Holy 
Jerusalem, whose builder and maker is God. These his- 
torical mountains suggest to me the necessity of mountain- 
climbing in our personal experience. It is not easy to climb 
mountains; the intelligent mountain-climber will leave his bag- 
gage at the base, he will lay aside every weight. If you 
would climb God's mountains, you must dump your baggage 
and become a free man in Christ. Leave your compromises, 
your base indulgences, your secret sins, in the canyons, and 
struggle on until you reach the summit. 

There are three mountains of experience which are abso- 
lutely necessary for you to climb if you would have power 
with God and with man. 

(A) The Mount of Humility. "For whosoever 
exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth him- 
self shall be exalted." Humility is an elevator, figuratively 
speaking. The Apostle Paul indicated the fact that he had 
reached the summit of the Mount of Humility. He said: "I 
am unworthy to be an apostle." Again he said: "I am less than 
the least of the saints." And in another place he said: "This 
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am 
chief." Did he mean that he had grown more corrupt and 
debauched since he had become a child of God? Certainly 



CAIN'S WIFE. in 

not. His experience developed humility. The higher up that 
mountain he climbed, the more odious sin became to him. 
The nearer you get to God, the more you will love purity, 
righteousness, and all that tends toward character-development. 
The closer to Christ you walk, the less interest you will have 
in the temptations with which the Devil seeks to overthrow you. 
There are members of churches in this audience whose rep- 
utation would be spoiled spiritually if they engaged in the 
wicked pursuits of compromise; if they danced or played cards 
or became impure or drunken, it would shock the whole com- 
munity. There are other church members in the community 
whose deflections from the path of rectitude have been so 
frequent that nobody is surprised when they evidence Satanic 
bondage. Take a piece of marble, rough cast by the road- 
side, whack it with your sledge-hammer, and you have not 
marred its beauty, because it has none. Place that piece of 
marble in the hands of the master scupltor and let him chisel 
it into an image until a Venus de Medici stands before you. 
I looked upon that marvelous masterpiece in a European art 
gallery, and I say to you a pencil-mark on the face or form 
would mar its beauty. No wonder Christ wants His people 
to walk with Him in white. How truly spoke the poet: "The 
nearer Heaven the whiter is the dress." 

Humility is a grace, an evidence of the Spirit of Jesus 
in the life. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. Go to the wheat-field and 
look upon the wheat which stands straight as a stick, never 
bending, and you will see a light-headed, cheap quality of 
wheat. Go to the field where you find the stalk bent, the 
head bowed, and I will show you a heavy yield of golden 
grain. The more fruit you bear for Jesus' sake, the more you 
will evidence the true spirit of humility. Saint Augustine said 
there are three vital articles in Christianity: first, Humilty; 
second, Humility; third, Humility. Reach the summit of that 



ii2 CAIN'S WIFE. 

mount and you are in fellowship with Jesus Christ. In Mu- 
nich they have an eleemosynary institution which cares for the 
beggar child life. When they enter they are painted by an 
artist in their rags and squalor. They are educated in the 
institution, and started out to meet the battles of life. When 
they leave the institution they are handed the picture, and 
urged to keep it as a reminder of their poverty, also as a 
warning. It seems to me that if every professing Christian 
should look back to the pit from which he was digged, the 
shame of his past sin would cause healthful humility to charac- 
terize his daily walk. 

Another mount of experience is: 

(B) The Mount or Self-Denial. Man is a 
microcosm — that is, he is a little world; he is a reflector 
of good or evil; of the good only as he is controlled by the 
Spirit of God; of the vile as a direct result of the Devil's 
dominion over him. He is therefore opaque like the moon, 
which shines with a borrowed light. When Adam was in 
the Garden of Eden in purity and innocence, he walked with 
God; Michael the archangel was his friend, the cherubim 
and seraphim his companions, the angels his playmates. He 
reflected Heaven's glory; in fact, he was a microtheosm. 
Bishop Fowler used to say: "Big words are the sepulchers 
in which men bury their little ideas." That is a good state- 
ment. The word "microtheosm" means a little god. Oh, 
if man had only continued being a little god! I sadly state 
the truth: man became a good-sized devil when he yielded 
to the power of the fathers of liars. If you follow self, you 
will land in perdition. If you follow Christ, you will land 
upon the sunny banks of God's perennial fields, where flowers 
ever bloom and sorrow never enters. Selfishness says: "I 
like this," "I love that." "I want liquor." The Devil makes 
his appeal at your vulnerable point. Don't congratulate me 
because I have not been drunk in your city during this evan- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 113 

gelistic campaign. There is not liquor enough on earth to 
tempt me to drink. Don't congratulate me that I have not 
been gambling while in your city. All of the paraphernalia 
of the gambling hells on earth cannot tempt me to gamble. 
The Devil will not tempt you ladies to steal horses, but he 
will tempt the horse-thief to do so. He will not tempt you to 
get drunk, but he may tempt your husband to do so. He will 
tempt you to fuss at your children and nag at your husband, 
if you have been accustomed to volcanic displays of temper. 
He may tempt you to be impure if your character is weak. 
Self-denial means to curb the desires of your fallen nature. 
Self-denial, therefore, becomes logically self-control. Jesus 
said: "If you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your 
cross, and follow Me." Self-denial, therefore, means fellow- 
ship with Jesus Christ, the Friend that sticketh closer than a 
brother. 

There is in ancient literature the story of Narcissus, who 
had resisted the gods. It seems that he had never seen a re- 
flection of his own face; finally, when he came to the water 
and looked into it and saw his image reflected, he was en- 
raptured, and he said: "That must be a water spirit; I will 
embrace it." And he took a leap to his death. Young people 
and old people look into the waters of self-aggrandizement, 
self-satisfaction, self-indulgence, and when they see the flush 
of pleasure on the cheeks of excited, sensual humanity, they 
say: "That must be the spirit of life, of happiness, of con- 
tentment; I will embrace it." And they take a leap into the 
waters of eternal damnation. In the name of God Almighty, 
reach the summit of self-denial. 

One more mount of experience, and I will close : 

(C) The Mount of Altruism. That means 

love for others, labor for others, the spirit of helpfulness. 

More joy comes to the soul in helping others than in 

all life's labor. Many years ago, in England, a missionary 



ii 4 CAIN'S WIFE. 

spoke to a minister and said: "If you want to see the vilest 
speciman of humanity in London, I will show you a dying 
young man upon a pile of straw in a dingy back room in the 
slum districts." The minister made his way to the room, 
i There, upon a bundle of rags and straw, lay the dying youth. 
j His father was an aristocrat ; he had disowned his prodigal 
son. William Dorset, the minister, preached Christ to the 
dying young man and the joy of salvation came into his soul. 
He said: "If my earthly father would only forgive me, I 
could die happy." Mr. Dorset asked him the name of his 
earthly father, and was amazed when the young man said: 

"Lord is my father." Dorset said: "I will bring 

him here and he will forgive you." He made his way quick- 
ly to the home of the aristocrat and was shown into the library. 
Finally, when the distinguished old gentleman came in, the 
minister said: "I have come to talk to you about your son." 
He replied: "I have no son; if you have come to talk to me 
about the wretch I disowned and disinherited, I have no time 
to spend with you, sir. Good day." He turned upon his heel 
and started to leave the room, whereupon the minister said: 
"Fie is your son just the same, but he will not be very long." 
The man stopped; looking toward the minister, he exclaimed: 
"Is my boy suffering?" "He is dying," answered the min- 
ister; "I have come to you to ask you to accompany me to 
his side that you may forgive him." The carriage was or- 
dered and the two men drove rapidly to the dingy tenement- 
house where lay the dying boy. The father took him in his 
arms and wept out his words of sorrow and forgiveness. He 
would have carried the boy to his home — in fact, I think he 
started with him in his arms when death ended the struggle; 
but not until the boy had said: "Oh! I can die happy now; I 
have my father's forgiveness here and God's forgiveness yon- 
der." It is a wonderful thing to spend and be spent in help- 
ing others. 



CAIN'S WIFE. ii 5 

Chapter X. 

SEVEN PILLARS. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

TEXT: "Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn 
out her seven pillars." — Proverbs 9:1. 

The book of Proverbs is truly the book of wisdom. We 
find in this remarkable book the statement: "The beginning 
of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." If that is true, the con- 
tinuation of wisdom is summed up in the statement: "He that 
winneth souls is wise." The text speaks of a house, which 
evidently indicates permanency of abode. It is my intention 
to let the word "house" represent the temple of Christian 
service which God expects every believer to erect. It is befit- 
ting, therefore, that pillars of faultless symmetry should sup- 
port and adorn this master building of the soul. I do not pose 
as an architect or a contractor, nor would I do good work 
as a carpenter, for that is far from my trend of mind. I 
know enough about building, however, to brand as splendid 
folly the erection of a building on the accumulated debris of 
years. When Nehemiah and his stalwart contemporaries re- 
built the walls of Jerusalem, they first cleared away the rub- 
bish. That is exactly what you must do in your religious 
experience if you want to be a monument of the grace of God. 
You can't build a spiritual church upon the flotsam, jetsam, 
and detritus of the theater, the card-table, and the dance. 
You can't have a spiritual life and support these things. We 
cannot build a revival upon such rubbish. Brethren, look 
well to the foundation of your life. I have long loved that 
sublime old hymn, 



n6 CAIN'S WIFE. 

"My hope is built on nothing less 
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness; 
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, 
But wholly lean on Jesus' name. 
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; 
All other ground is sinking sand." 

There is a sentence in the text which indicates stability 
of character, continuity of thought, prosecution of design, de- 
termination to win — "She hath hewn out her seven pillars." 
That means the deliberate choice of hard work. The pillars 
could have been made of putty, wood, or some material which 
would have required very little labor in their preparation and 
erection. When you look upon the Cathedral of Cologne, 
you will remember that it took six hundred years of labor to 
construct that marvelous building. We do not know who 
built the pyramids of Egypt, but had they been built of papy- 
rus, parchment, cloth, or any specially mutable material, they 
would be unknown to the people of this age. I have spent 
some enjoyable hours in the British Museum in London. I 
think one of the most profitable visits to that wonderful insti- 
tution was the time I spent looking at and reading about the 
Rosetta Stone. The French found it in Egypt. The English 
victory meant the possession of the Rosetta Stone. That stone 
is the key to the hieroglyphics of Egypt; without it the world 
would probably know very little about Egyptology and the 
bigotry and braggadocio of the Pharaohs of that historical 
land. Suppose the Rosetta Stone had been made of shoddy 
material by a thoughtless workman. The world would be 
the loser. Suppose you play the hypocrite as a professing 
Christian, or live in the shallow pretenses of self-righteousness 
as a sinner, and fail to huild your house and hero your seven 
pillars; the friends depending upon you for inspiration, encour- 
agement, and divine impetus, will have a great deal to charge 
to the debit side of your account and nothing to the credit of 



CAIN'S WIFE. 117 

It is my purpose in this discourse to name the pillars which 
beautify and strengthen Wisdom's home. First, I invite your 
attention to : 

1. Absolute Surrender. 

It is an amazing thing to discover the number of people 
who profess to be Christians who will openly admit that they 
have never made a consecration to Christ or a complete sur- 
render of themselves to the Lord. They just have religion 
enough to make them miserable. Their relation to God is 
about the same as the relation of a wife to a husband should 
she say to him: "I will take your name, but I won't give you 
my heart's Igvc" Homes of that sort are stunted and blighted 
in point of happiness and moral or spiritual development. There 
is no pure and undefiled religion separate and apart from ab- 
solute surrender. Let me read the command of Almighty God 
in this regard: "Wherefore come out from among them, and 
be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 
thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, 
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Al- 
mighty." (2 Cor. 6:17-18.) If these words mean anything, 
they mean there is no such a thing as sonship in the sight of 
God except through absolute surrender. Do not deceive your- 
selves. If you live the cold, unspiritual life of the unregen- 
erate church member, verily you shall have your reward, but 
it will be a little added respectability, a little soothing of the 
conscience, a lullaby into the sleep of death, while the Devil 
rocks the cradle and sings, "Peace, peace," when there is no 
peace. .' 

The men and women of the past whose lives inspire us 
to Christian fortitude and service have been people who have 
lived a surrendered life. I meet people throughout the coun- 
try who say: "I am partly a Christian." Then I suppose 
they would use the term Christian "twentitude" instead of 



n8 CAIN'S WIFE. 

"fortitude"; but I will make it plain; it is either "fortitude" or 
"zerotude." You will not get any more out of religion than 
you put in it. Perhaps I should say, the basis of God's deal- 
ing with you is that of your honesty, humility, and purity of 
purpose. 

Moody decided many years ago that he would speak 
personally to some sinner every day. I have been told that 
he retired one stormy Saturday night, after having spent the 
day in the shoe-store, and when he realized that he had 
failed to speak to a soul, he arose and dressed, although 
it was storming and after eleven o'clock. He went out on 
the street, in the rain, and approached a man at the corner. 
When he asked the man if he was a Christian, the man pre- 
tended to be insulted, and said: "If you were not a sort of a 
preacher, I would knock you down." One of Moody's friends 
told him the next day that he thought he was too zealous; he 
was doing, perhaps, more harm than good. Two or three days 
later a rap was heard at the door. Moody stepped to the door, 
and there stood the man to whom he had spoken the midnight 
warning. The man was very penitent and said: "I want you 
to pray for me. I want your forgiveness." That kind of serv- 
ice was the basis of Moody's great career. 

When Dr. Torrey was a young pastor in Ohio, sitting in 
his study urging the microbes of sermonizing into action, the 
Spirit of the Lord called him to go down to a saloon and pray 
for the wretches who were in the place. Finally he went, and 
the next day the owner of the opposition saloon said to him: 
"Didn't you run a prayer-meeting in the saloon across the street 
yesterday?" Dr. Torrey replied: "I certainly did." The 
saloonkeeper asked: "Isn't my saloon as good as his?" 
Whereupon the minister replied: "Doubtless." And he pro- 
ceeded to run a prayer-meeting in the last-named saloon. 

When God wanted a man to go to the hot-beds of higher 
criticism, evolution, materialism, and dogmatism — which is pup- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 119 

pyism grown old — He called R. A. Torrey and he went 
around the world in a record-breaking campaign. Uncondi- 
tional surrender was the basis of his world-wide mission. 

Nearly twenty years ago Billy Sunday felt the call, after 
his conversion, to enter Christian work. He was at that time 
being paid $500 a month as a professional base-ball player. 
His friends advised him to play ball rather than to enter Chris- 
tian work, but the advice of the Lord was: "I want you in 
My service." Billy took the Lord's advice. He accepted a 
position with the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association 
at $80 a month, and during the hard times he would go for 
months without his regular salary because the association was 
hard up, and had he not saved some money from his ball- 
playing, he doubtless would have suffered. When God wanted 
to raise up a scourge to the dead church and the lazy minister, 
He called Billy Sunday, and his phenomenal success in leading 
over seven thousand people to Christ in Spokane, Wash., is an 
indication of the power God will give to the man who will pay 
the price. 

In the second place, if you want to become an effective 
worker, you must hew out the pillar — 

2. Love for the Lost. 

In Romans 5 :8 we discover this beautiful truth: "While 
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Some years ago it 
was my good fortune to meet Madame Tsilka in a large Ameri- 
can city. I heard her address a company of Christian peo- 
ple who were studying for the ministry and the mission field. 
You will remember, doubtless, her harrowing experience in the 
mountains of Bulgaria, held for ransom by heartless brigands ; 
she, being in a delicate condition when captured, gave birth to a 
child in the mountains, far away from her loved ones and her 
home. Fortunately, Miss Ellen Stone, an American mission- 
ary, was with her as a captive during her hours of suffering and 



i2o CAIN'S WIFE. 

trial. This woman, whose soul was tried, whose patience was 
taxed, her life endangered, who with tender hands ministered as 
a Christian to the chief of the bandit band when he had been 
injured accidentally in the mountain fastnesses, said the bandits 
assured her that they would never again capture a Christian. 
The brave souls made strong in their sorrow by the Spirit of 
Jesus had brought mighty conviction to the hearts of their cap- 
tors. She paused after describing some of the conditions of her 
surroundings, and tears were in her eyes, pathos and power in 
her voice, when she said: "Young people, do not go as a mis- 
sionary, as an evangelist, as a minister of the gospel, unless your 
heart is overflowing with love for the lost." There is not 
enough vital concern for the lost in the hearts of the church 
members of to-day. Multiply the love for the lost and you will 
double any church membership in America in twelve months. 
In the third place, hew out the pillar — 

3. Prayer for the Lost. 

In James 5:16 we read: "The effectual fervent prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much." I think one of the best 
methods of reaching a community, separate and apart from a 
regular union evangelistic campaign, is for the church members 
to make out prayer lists and daily pray for the unsaved of their 
homes and their neighborhoods. A revival will begin in any 
church and in any community when the people truly begin to 
pray for the lost. A friend of mine was in England some years 
ago and was asked by an old gentleman to join him in prayer 
for the conversion of his son, who was just closing twenty-one 
years of service in the English Navy. The father expected him 
home the following day. The son boarded the train at Liver- 
pool and started for his home either at Manchester or Birming- 
ham, and he was placed in a compartment with an old Chris- 
tian gentleman, who talked kindly to him ; he finally discovered 
that the young man had spent twenty-one years in the Navy, and 



CAIN'S WIFE. 121 

he said: "My young friend, are you not willing to begin a life 
of service for the King of kings and Lord of lords?" Before 
he reached his home town he was converted. When his father 
met him at the train, he heard this glad message: "Father, 
yesterday I ended twenty-one years of service in the Navy. To- 
day I began a life service as a soldier of the King of kings." 
Mother, you can pray your boy or your girl into the Kingdom. 
Wife, you can pray your husband into the Kingdom. Hus- 
band, you can pray your wife into the Kingdom. 
In the fourth place, hew out the pillar — 

4. Labor for the Lost. 

I think the message of Luke 14:23 is overlooked by too 
many in the church-life of our nation: "Go ye into the high- 
ways and hedges and compel them to come in." 

"There were ninety and nine that safely lay 
In the shelter of the fold ; 
But one was out on the hills away, 
Far off from the gates of gold. 
Away on the mountains wild and bare, 
Away from the tender Shepherd's care. 

" 'Lord, thou hast here Thy ninety and nine, 

Are they not enough for Thee?' 
But the Shepherd made answer, 

'This of mine has wandered away from Me, 
And although the road be rough and steep, 
I go to the desert to find My sheep.' " 

I was conducting a meeting in a small town in southern 
Kansas several years ago, and I saw an aged woman embrace 
an aged man at the altar, and then she publicly praised God ; I 
stepped over to her and asked her the cause of her great joy. 
She replied: "This is my husband, for whom I have prayed 
and worked forty-five years, and at last he has come to Christ." 



122 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Was forty-five years of labor worth while? Was forty-five 
years of praying worth while? The one who had labored and 
prayed felt that it was time well spent. 
The fifth pillar I will call — 

5. Hope for the L.ost. 

There are many despondent, discouraged debauchees in 
the world who need a ray of hope, who possibly have never 
heard the message of forgiveness and love. God holds out 
hope to the vilest. In Isaiah 1:18, we read: "Come now, 
and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be 
as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; though they be red 
like crimson, they shall be as wool." 

Years ago, in a drunken hovel in Chicago, a pale woman 
sat with a dying babe in her arms. Her husband staggered in, 
and was called by the sad wife to her side. She said: "Mel, 
I only have a little money left; I am afraid the baby is dying. 
For God's sake, take this money [it was a fifty-cent piece] and 
go to the drug-store as quick as you can and bring this bottle 
full of medicine. Now hurry!" He took the money — rushed 
on toward the drug-store. Every devil in Hell seemed to turn 
loose upon the frail structure of manhood that had survived the 
years of debauchery. He thought within himself: "I must 
not enter that saloon ; the baby is dying ; I must get that medi- 
cine." But of course the fiery imps seemed to shriek in the 
chambers of his soul: "What do we care about your baby? 
what do we care about an ocean of tears from the sorrowing 
wives and broken-hearted mothers of this world? Drink, drink, 
till you are filled!" His eyes were blazing, his brain whirling, 
his heart pounding ; he had reached the saloon, he entered it. 
He put the fifty-cent piece on the bar and said: "Give me 
liquor." He drank the liquor and fell asleep. Hours later 
he was ushered, or shoved, into the street. He made his way 
home ; there sat his wife, and the baby was dead in her arms. 



CAIN'S WIFE. i2 3 

I have heard him say: "When I saw the dead baby, it broke 
my heart." It has truly been said by Mel Trotter that he was 
so low down he had to reach up to touch bottom ; but I want to 
add my testimony, after eleven years of personal and intimate 
acquaintance: he is to-day the greatest rescue mission worker 
in the world, and I believe in that regard is so high up he has to 
reach down to touch the top. Do you know what won Mel 
Trotter? It was the text John 3:16: "For God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
The leve of God gives hope to the sinner. 

That leads me to say the sixth pillar is— - 

6. Christ for the Lost. 

"There is none other name under heaven given among men 
whereby we must be saved." Multitudes have tried reforma- 
tion, they have sworn off, they have taken gold cures, and have 
failed. The blood cure will save the sinner. Many years 
ago a brilliant lawyer of Louisville reformed. He had been a 
drunkard for years. Being a brilliant speaker, he was asked to 
lecture on temperance. He gave an address in New York city. 
He deprecated the attempt to make a religious issue out of the 
temperance question. He said: "Keep religion where it be- 
longs, and temperance where it belongs; let a man determine 
within himself that he will give up the cup." Coming to the 
peroration of his address, he gave utterance to these words: "If 
the world were one grand chrysolite and I were offered the whole 
to drink one drop of liquor, I should say, 'No!' " The thun- 
derous applause that greeted that outburst indicated the high 
esteem and perfect confidence in which he was held by the vast 
audience. Some months later the same man was a staggering 
drunkard in the streets of Louisville ; his clothing was shabby ; 
his friends had forsaken him. He entered a blacksmith shop, 
where the man at the anvil was pounding a piece of metal white 



i2 4 CAIN'S WIFE. 

with heat. He said to the blacksmith: "If I knew it would 
take this horrible appetite for liquor out of me, I would take that 
piece of metal and hold it in my right hand until it cooled." 
Poor drunken wretch, he died in his drunkenness, a disgrace to 
his family name, bringing chagrin and sorrow to his friends and 
his loved ones. He was buried by the hands of charity. No 
man can win the battle in his own strength; he needs Jesus 
Christ. Said Jesus: "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto Me." 

The seventh pillar is — 

7. Assurance for the Lost. 

The Spirit witnesses with our spirits that we are the chil- 
dren of God. When you find a person who has a definite ex- 
perience, an absolute assurance, he has a red-hot testimony. 
The soul-winner is the Christian of assurance. I can say with 
the Apostle Paul: "I know whom I have believed, and am 
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed 
unto Him against that day." Point the sinner unerringly to the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, have him 
fix his eyes on the promise. His feeling will keep pace with his 
faith. Assurance is the result of faith. Some years ago, when 
I proposed to a sweet young lady and she promised to be my 
wife, I did not request her to send out for some witnesses to 
substantiate her word. The fact is, I didn't want any wit- 
nesses around at that important epoch in our lives. I believed 
her word, and my faith in her promise made me very happy. 
When people believe the Word of God, after having fulfilled 
the conditions named in the promise, the assurance is bound to 
come. We must not make an emotional debauch of religion. 
The religion of Jesus Christ is deeper than our feelings; if it 
were not, we would build upon a sandy foundation. A private 
sprang from the ranks and stopped Napoleon's horse when it 
had become unmanageable. Napoleon, appreciating the cour- 






CAIN'S WIFE. 125 

age and quickness of the private, said: "Thank you, cap- 
tain." The private, being keen of wit, responded : "Captain 
of what, your majesty?" Napoleon responded: "Captain of 
my Guards, sir." The young man immediately stepped to 
where the officers of the Guards were in consultation. A subor- 
dinate ordered him back into the ranks. The private responded : 
"I am captain of the Guards." He didn't use his feelings as 
the basis of his official position. When asked for his authority, 
he pointed full into the face of Napoleon, who came riding up, 
and said: "I am captain of the Guards, because the Emperor 
said it." I am a child of God, because Jesus has given me the 
witness of the Spirit. 

Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her 
seven pillars." God help you to become a master builder for 
eternity. 



i26 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter XI. 

MORAL ARCHEOLOGY. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

My text is found in the book of Genesis, the first four 
words of the first verse of the book: "In the beginning God." 
In this wonderful book we are told the story of man's creation. 
God made man and gave him a character, but he lost it, accord- 
ing to the official record, and God has impoverished Heaven to 
restore man to his first estate. 

In traveling in Europe and America, I have noticed the 
globe-trotters, with their little guide-books, studying them in- 
tently, determined to follow the directions of the traveled ex- 
perts. Man needs a guide-book morally and spiritually. The 
Bible is just such a book. A man without an ideal is a man 
without the divine afflatus. The ideal molds and makes the 
moral worth, the spiritual integrity, the artistic temperament, 
the professional ability, the phenomenal success, and lack of it 
spells colossal failure. A farmer rebuked his boy some years 
ago because he made such a mess in laying off corn rows ; the 
furrows were crooked and the field looked untidy. The boy 
replied: "Pa, I done the best I could." The old man gave 
the following advice: "When you go back to the field, find 
something straight across, and plow toward it, and you will 
make a straight furrow." The boy reached the field, saw a 
brindle cow straight across, and plowed toward her. The re- 
sult was not flattering. The boy needed to plow toward a sta- 
tionary object. If you would make straight furrows in life, 
plow toward the Rock of Ages, which has stood the test of 
Hell's opposition and the avalanche of the invectives of wicked 



CAIN'S WIFE. 127 

men. Fixed principles, immutable convictions, an ironclad de- 
termination to do the right, to honor God, to put God first in 
the life, is a guarantee of moral stamina and spiritual power. 

Young people, hear me: in the beginning of your edu- 
cation, "Remember now thy Creator." In laying the founda- 
tions of your manhood and womanhood, consider God; in 
choosing a profession, think of Him; in entering business, ac- 
count to Him; when He calls you, answer with Isaiah, "Here 
am I; send me." So many young men and women of our day 
consider religion a good thing for old crippled men or blind 
palsied women. Man is considered indecent and is locked up 
when he appears on the street physically unadorned. In the 
sight of God and the angels, he is worthy to be locked up for 
eternity when with fiendish audacity he breaks God's laws and 
stands in open defiance before the court of God with the shame 
of his iniquity uncovered. 

Faith in Jesus Christ anchors you to holy ideals. Right- 
eousness means power, because righteousness evidences self- 
control. Napoleon could not be classed as a moralist or a re- 
ligionist, yet he was moral; but he was moral from a selfish 
standpoint. He was philosophical in his mental makeup, and 
he figured it out logically that if he could not control himself, 
he could not control others. His power over men began when 
he exerted power over himself, control of his passions, control of 
his ambitions. There is no greater philosophy than the state- 
ment of the wise man in the sixteenth chapter of Proverbs, which 
reads: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; 
and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." 

One of the scientists has made the statement in recent 
years that "heredity is the memory of the plastidule." He 
probably knows what the plastidule is ; I don't suppose anyone 
else does. Habit, without a doubt, is the child of thought. 
Good habits are as easily cultivated as bad ones if you begin 
early enough in life. Bad habits evidence a diseased condi- 



i28 CAIN'S WIFE. 

tion of the mentality. I am not speaking of the physiological 
disease; there may be no pathological obsessions or cerebral 
lesions ; the disease is psychic, moral. When you enter a house 
and see it in disorder, dusty, disarranged, full of foul odors, 
you are convinced that poverty, ignorance, filth, disorder, and 
odoriferousness do not evidence the presence of the dainty house- 
keeper. Young man, take a mental survey of the chambers of 
thought within you. If you see the gambling paraphernalia, 
the blue smoke of profanity, the foul odors of disease, the soul 
furniture broken by drunkenness, make up your mind that you 
have visited the residence of the fool ; and I will give you proof 
of the fact: 'Fools make a mock of sin." (Proverbs 14:9.) 
This moral and psychic disorder depicts the evidence of spirit- 
ual anarchy and moral turpitude. The flagitious wretch will 
sooner or later appear before the judge's desk to answer for his 
crimes. Fine clothing will not protect the facinorous; the 
heart condition will master the dress parade pretenses. Water 
will strike its level; the criminal will strike his. The young 
man who has within himself what the Spaniard calls "gusto 
picaresco" (a roguish taste) cannot hide his roguishness from 
the intelligent in society or business. You don't have to bore 
into a dog and have the borings chemically analyzed to dis- 
cover the evidences of canine meat. A dog is a dog by nature 
and he evidences his nature wherever he appears. The same 
is true of the obdurate transgressor. By way of illustration, 
some years ago a farmer who was being assisted by his son in 
the amputation of the caudal appendage of his young swine, 
became so interested in a passer-by that he glanced from the 
block while he held the pig's tail and brought his hatchet down 
across the end of his finger and severed the member. He had 
heard that if the severed parts should be quickly placed together 
before the blood cooled, adhesion would be the result. In his 
blinding pain he grabbed for the finger-end and put what he 
supposed to be the missing part at its proper place and hurriedly 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 2 g 

wrapped his handkerchief about the same. Some days later he 
removed the handkerchief and, to his dumb amazement, he dis- 
covered the end of the pig's tail growing where his finger should 
have ended. (Laughter.) He said it never bothered him, ex- 
cept when he was eating corn, and then it wiggled all the time. 
(Laughter.) That wiggling was simply an evidence of the hog 
nature at work. 

I want the attention of the men of this audience. Your 
profanity, your gambling, licentiousness, lying, dishonesty in 
business, and boasted self-righteousness, simply evidence your 
debauched nature, your blighted soul, your eternal damna- 
tion, if you fail to repent. History brings to us the evi- 
dences of wonderful reward for patient endeavor in overcoming 
obstacles, whether moral, educational, commercial, religious, 
or otherwise. Abraham Lincoln, the plow-boy, with his law- 
book on the plow-handles, studying as he tilled the soil, was un- 
consciously in his youth the logical future President of the 
United States. Compare him, in his splendid endeavor to 
secure an education against almost overwhelming odds, with the 
young bucks of our generation in the universities and colleges, 
who spend a great deal of time growing hair on the outside of 
their heads and mighty little time growing brains on the inside 
of the same ; whose college life consists largely of cracking cor- 
rupt jokes and liquor-bottles and sucking coffin-screws — I mean 
cigarettes. The best definition of a cigarette I have ever heard 
is this : a cigarette is a little thing, with a piece of fire at one end 
and a fool at the other. (Applause.) Young men of the 
sort just described are candidates for the coffin, chain-gang, or 
penitentiary. Young women, don't throw yourselves away at 
the marriage-altar with such a jobbernole. Some of you girls 
act like you don't know what a jobbernole is; I will tell you, it 
is a blockhead. Society has been developing a lot of isthmus- 
legged nonentities the past few generations in our country, who 
have become the tools of the divorce devil to bring a reign of 



i 3 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

sorrow and shame and disgrace to American citizenship and to 
the American home. I use the term "isthmus-legged" with a 
clear understanding of the diction employed. An isthmus is a 
narrow neck of land connecting two larger divisions of land. 
You take the spindle-shank which connects a number fourteen 
foot with a corrupt body and a size six head and you get my 
meaning. (Applause.) We have had a great deal of talk in 
recent years about muscular development ; they have developed 
everything from the feet to the chin. A friend of mine called 
my attention sometime ago to a new plan for the lengthening of 
the backbone, seeing I stand in need of such treatment. (Mr. 
Oliver is six feet four inches in height.) I thanked him for his 
information, but decided to postpone the treatment indefinitely, 
since the Lord was good to me along that line. A strong arm 
is a splendid possession, but it is well to consider that the head 
was not made by the Creator for a hat-rack. In the West, 
some time ago, a man was traveling across the prairie, and he 
came to a sod house, located many miles from any settlement, 
wherein he found a very friendly old farmer. The traveler 
finally said: "Don't you find it mighty lonesome out here? 
What on earth do you do to while away your spare moments?" 
The farmer replied: "Well, sometimes I set and think; and 
then agin I jes' set." (Laughter.) There are not enough 
folks in the world who think; there are too many who "jes' set." 
"In the beginning God" means courage, optimism, success. 
A man who is right with God has a clear eye and free con- 
science. Sir Galahad, you spoke well when you said, "My 
strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure." I 
believe "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise 
of the life that now is and of that which is to come." ( 1 Tim- 
othy 4:8.) The godly man may be an adept in diplomacy; 
he is never dishonest; he will not be a charlatan. I heard a 
story some years ago, in the South, which illustrates much of the 
spirit of the modern business world. Two negro«s had bought 



CAIN'S WIFE. 131 

a cow and were keeping her in a rented pasture. Old Uncle 
Mose milked the cow night and morning, and kept all the milk. 
Uncle Ebenezer was unable to understand the justice of the 
actions of his partner, so he showed up one morning about sun- 
up, while Mose was milking, and he propounded the following 
question: "Good mawnin', Brudder Mose. Didn't we bought 
dat cow in pardnership, half and half?" Mose replied: "Yes, 
we suttinly did." Ebenezer then continued: "Brudder Mose, 
how is it den dat you gits all de milk an' I gits all de pardner- 
ship?" Old Uncle Mose arose with the dignity of a Federal 
judge and said: "Brudder Ebenezer, I 'se done 'lected fur to 
chuse which end ob dis cow I takes ; I takes de hin' half ob de 
cow. Juit yo' nullifyin' an' secedin' from dis heah compack, 
an' walk yo'se'f away from heah an' git up somefin fur to feed 
yo' end ob de cow wid." (Laughter and applause.) Posses- 
sion may be several favorable points in law, but if the possessor 
has stolen the property or acquired possession dishonorably, he 
is a rascal and should be so considered. Little dishonesties 
destroy the integrity of the man. When the character is under- 
mined, there will be a crash sooner or later. Our prisons are 
filled with embezzlers and other classes of criminals, who didn't 
mean to get caught "with the goods on them." Many a wretch 
has said: "I am going to swear off." He has discovered it 
is mighty easy to swear on again. Swearing off presents about 
an equal amount of protection as can be secured in the time of 
war behind a paper fort, which supports silk guns loaded with 
face-powder and puff-balls. In Africa families have been seated 
in apparent security and in evident comfort in their homes, when 
the building collapsed ; some were killed, others injured. There 
are large white ants which destroy the heart of the timber; in 
fact, they hollow the logs out and there are no evidences of 
their work until the weakened timbers break. Subtle irregular- 
ities, white lies, tricks in trade, and other evidences of Mephisto- 
phelian rascality are easily discovered when the moral structure 



132 CAIN'S WIFE. 

collapses and the penitentiary opens. In the synoptic table of 
mental degeneracy arranged by Magnan of Paris you will no- 
tice one kind of degeneracy under the hereditary list called 
Aboulia, which means indecision due to mental torpor. It may, 
however, manifest itself in other forms, such as ambitious delir- 
ium, hypochondriacal delirium, religious delirium, delirium of 
persecution. Where you will find one person in any wise af- 
flicted with the delirium of ambition, you will discover the great 
majority of people in the state of mental torpor which is evi- 
denced in indecision, apparent laziness, low standard of excel- 
lence in any kind of work undertaken. Without any hesitation, 
I urge both young and old to be ambitious; ambitious to do the 
right, ambitious lo think lofty thoughts, ambitious to honor God 
in the life, ambitious to make a great name for yourself. The 
Apostle Paul concentrated his intellect and his character in one 
statement: "This one thing I do: forgetting those things which 
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are be- 
fore, I press toward the mark and the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:13-14.) 

Regeneration in a word explains the text in its spiritual 
meaning in this message. Regeneration is the gateway to the 
Land of Promise. The land is yours if you will go in and pos- 
sess it. Men tell me it is hard to give up a wicked life. I 
know that is true, but it is infinitely harder for the person who 
does not give up the wicked life and live the Christian life. 
Hell is harder than Christian service. Multitudes try to justify 
themselves in their reprobacy and godlessness with the state- 
ment: "I tried to be a Christian once, but I couldn't hold 
out." There is a cause for every effect; mental, moral, or 
spiritual stigmata evidence the existence of specific causation. 
Some time ago a small boy appeared with a large appetite at 
the breakfast-table. In the course of his remarks he related the 
fact that he had fallen out of bed during the night and the fall 
awakened him. The father suggested the possibility of dreams 



CAIN'S WIFE. 133 

being responsible, the mother assented, the sister gave her ex- 
planation, and the boy finally settled the discussion by saying: 
"I know why I fell out of bed; it was because I was lying too 
close to where I got in." (Laughter.) Too many church 
members are satisfied to lie down on the dividing-line between 
the Church and the world and go to sleep ; when they turn over 
they fall on the Devil's side of the line every time. (Preacher, 
"That 's so.") 

The evolution of physical power, which is technically 
called dynamogeny, has made man a skilled artist, sculptor, in- 
ventor, farmer, civil engineer — in a word, proficient in all lines 
requiring physical effort. The exhibition of psychic power, 
which is technically called dynamophany, has made man mas- 
ter of the seas, the sender of the wireless message, the apostle of 
intellectual genius. The appropriation of spiritual power, which 
I will call dynamopneumy, has made man "more than conqueror 
through Christ, who loved him and gave Himself for him." 
Ambition is the philosophical outgrowth of courage. The first 
chapter of Joshua rings with this wonderful slogan, "Be strong 
and of a good courage." The courageous man has been the 
hero on the battle-field, the victor in the strife. Shakespeare's 
"Faint heart ne'er won fair lady" expresses the idea. The 
coward is a psychological and physiological failure primarily. 
There is a line of demarcation between courage and fool- 
hardiness; a brave man must have sense enough to run at the 
right time. It is therefore a good thing to critically analyze 
one's mental, moral, spiritual, and physical powers; in other 
words, remember your limitations and develop strength wherein 
you discover weakness. The conservation of energy should be 
understood and cultivated. "Dutch courage" — the disposition 
to fight as a result of liquor-drinking — has the effect of uncork- 
ing the vials of physical reserve force which are kept corked 
when common sense controls. The Apostle Paul has presented 
a statement which acts as the governor to the intelligent man. 



134 CAIN'S WIFE. 

His advice is: "Don't think of yourself more highly than you 
ought to think." If your nervous condition leads you into 
pessimism, throw yourself as far into the regions of optimism as 
you possibly can. If your sights are too high in expected pros- 
perity, lower them. In the language of the hunter, "Use the 
wind-gauge," for the wind of adversity may blow your bullet 
out of line and cause you to miss the mark. Some time ago, in 
the South an old colonel, when asked by his tailor what size he 
wanted his hip-pockets, replied, "Quart size, suh!" He found 
himself some time later under the influence of liquor and seemed 
very anxious to fight. People who knew the colonel were not 
anxious to punish him, so they allowed him free use cf his pow- 
ers of speech, and finally, becoming boisterous, the colonel de- 
clared his ability to lick any five men in the county; to climb a 
thorn-tree a hundred feet high, with a wildcat under each arm, 
and never get scratched. (Laughter.) Some hours later the 
colonel was seen limping down a back street with a black eye, 
a bloody nose, and a swollen lip. A man met him and said: 
"Colonel, I thought you said you could lick any five men in the 
county, and climb a thorn-tree a hundred feet high with a wild- 
cat under each arm, and never get scratched. Have you been 
clmbing the tree?" "Yes, sir," the colonel answered; "I done 
climbed the tree; I got this coming down." (Applause.) It 
is better for a man to stay on terra fir ma; then he doesn't have 
to fall so far. 

My friends, I wonder if you have ever considered the 
meaning of the words, "Six days shalt thou labor." Jesus 
Christ dignified labor when He spent eighteen years in the car- 
penter shop of Nazareth. "Religion and labor" should be 
stated "the religion of labor." It is a mistake for the young man 
who has a natural leaning and splendid ability along the lines 
of plowing corn, shoeing horses, branding cattle, to become a 
preacher because "mama wants him to preach." God wants 
consecrated farmers, blacksmiths, merchants, lawyers, doctors. 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 35 

teachers, artists, musicians, and editors as much as He wants 
consecrated ministers and missionaries. The man who works 
should realize as a Christian that faithfulness in his daily labor 
is service to God and will be rewarded. Hiram Gough, a 
shoemaker, furnishes a good example of the religion of labor. 
A young minister had heard of the unquestioned piety of the old 
cobbler; he had noted his faithful attendance at all the im- 
portant services of the church, and, calling upon him, said: 
"Mr. Gough?" The old cobbler interrupted, saying, "Call 
me plain Hiram." The young minister said: "Pardon me, 
Hiram. I came over to tell you I am glad to see a man in 
your humble calling — " The shoemaker arose and said to him: 
"Don't call my calling humble; I am a shoemaker by the grace 
of God. Do you see this pair of shoes I am mending? These 
shoes are worn by the little daughter of old widow Smith. If 
I fail to do good work in mending them and that child catches 
cold because of my shoddy work, I am personally responsible. 
I am accountable to God for my shoe-making and repairing. 
If I do a better job in my shop than you do in the pulpit, I will 
get a better reward than you when we stand before Christ at the 
judgment." A man who loves his work will do better work 
than the man to whom the work is drudgery. Some time 
ago a man asked the President of the United States how 
he managed to do so much work. The President replied, 
with a smile: "It is because I love my job." That is the 
secret of the art of great accomplishment. A woman who loves 
to keep house will be a tidy, dainty housekeeper. The woman 
who loves to cook will turn out elegant meals intelligently pre- 
pared. The woman to whom housework is drudgery will have 
a house looking like a junk-shop, and a meal looking like an 
Irish stew, as the result of her labors. Parents, do not force 
the boy into some trade because his father or grandfather was 
an expert in that line. Don't put a round boy in a square hole. 
Do not stand with a cudgel over your daughter, making her sit 



1 36 CAIN'S WIFE. 

at the piano for many weary hours, chasing scales, doing ar- 
peggios, grinding out mazurkas and rap-shodies (rhapsodies), 
when her mind and her natural choice is in botany, sewing, 
painting, or cooking. Develop the best within her. If music 
is not in her soul, let it become an incident in her education. 
There are too many people in the world to-day giving pains 
with their voices. (Laughter.) If pianos could speak, I think 
some of them would say: "Oh that my head were waters, 
and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and 
night for the slain of the daughters of my people!" (Applause.) 
When you discover the trail upon which you can hit your best 
gait intellectually, professionally, and otherwise, go in to win ; 
drop your baggage, and declare you are going to make a speed 
record toward the goal of perfection. (Applause.) 

A man down South related the story some time ago of a 
hunter who was pursued by a panther, and who finally, looking 
ahead, saw another panther in the path, preparing to spring upon 
him. He waited a moment and when he saw the panther leap, 
he sprang to one side, and just at that moment the panther pur- 
suing him sprang also, and both panthers met in mid-air. The 
old negro who described the scene said: "Dem painters rum 
togedder wid such turrible ambition dat instead of fallin' dem 
painters riz into de air and dey disappeared from circum- 
spection, and de hair was fallin' t'ree days aftehwuds." 
(Laughter.) It takes "turrible ambition" to rise in this world. 
(Applause.) 

In my closing remarks I want to urge upon the parents as 
well as the young people to place God first in the home-life. 
Young people, hear me. The time will come, or has already, 
when you will plan to make a home for yourself. The spring- 
time of life is the mating-time, and I believe in getting married 
and staying married. Young man, I want your attention; the 
girl worth marrying detests the little clammy-handed, sallow- 
faced, half-baked neurotic, degenerated, cigarette-smoking cuss. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 137 

(Applause.) If the parents continue to advocate the sowing of 
wild oats for the young men of America, the legislators will 
have to issue a marriage license with divorce coupons attached, 
for the protection of the women. (Sensation.) I don't be- 
lieve in the marriage of children, but I most assuredly favor an 
early marriage rather than a late one. I believe the clean, 
healthful young man who passes twenty-five years of age and is 
unmarried ought to be fined $500, and if he passes thirty-five 
years of age and has retained his integrity and is still unmarried, 
he ought to be sent to the penitentiary for life. (Laughter and 
applause.) There is no sweeter place this side of heaven than 
the Christian home. Do you want to know about marital hap- 
piness, marriageable girls and young men? The text is a guar- 
antee to happiness. In regard to your home, heed the words: 
"In the beginning God." I mentioned the mating-time of life. 
Did you ever notice the birds in the spring-time? / have never 
seen them make a mistake. The dove never marries the crow; 
the nightingale never marries the owl ; the red bird never marries 
the woodpecker ; the bird of paradise never marries the buzzard. 
Why is it the bird family has more marrying sense than the hu- 
man family ? I have seen a young woman, sweet, refined, cul- 
tured, beautiful soul — a veritable dove — led to the marriage 
altar by some contemptible crow for a husband. I have seen 
some dainty bird of paradise — a girl with the finest sensibilities, 
rare grace, and phenomenal beauty — become the wife of a hu- 
man buzzard. These remarks are plain, but the terrible truth 
needs plain handling. Young woman, you have as much right 
to swear, and smoke, and chew, and drink, and gamble, and 
carouse as the man has who expects you to become his wife. 
(Great applause.) If you allow some degenerate to lead you 
to the marriage altar, you are a sentimental fool. (Applause.) 
We have all heard of beauty in old age. There is no rarer 
grace than the fruit of a righteous life. I saw a letter some 
time ago from a wife to her husband. She said: "You are 



i 3 8 CAIN'S WIFE. 

my ideal of a Christian; you have helped me to be a better 
woman." A home built on that kind of love will defy all of 
the blasts of life's storms, for it is founded on the Eternal Rock. 
"In the beginning God," and God will be there at the winding 
up of the affairs of that home. An aged Scotchman sat by the 
bedside where lay the partner of over seventy years of married 
life. He was ninety-five, she was ninety-three. The dying 
woman said: "Donald, it is getting night." She thought it 
was the close of another day. He knew it was the end of her 
life. He replied: "Yes, Janet, it is getting night." She 
said: "Husband, are the boys all in?" He answered: "Yes, 
wife, the boys are all in." The last one had passed over to 
Glory fifteen years before. The old woman said: "Husband, 
I will soon be in, won't I?" The old man said: "Yes, you 
will soon be in." The feeble old saint said: "Husband, you 
will soon come in too, won't you?" He answered: "Yes, by 
the grace of God, I will soon come in." Her life passed away 
when she had spoken these words: "And the Lord will shut 
us all in together forever, won't He?" 

"Oh, think of the home over there, 
By the side of the River of Life, 
Where the saints, all immortal and fair, 
Are robed in their garments of white." 

"In the beginning God." 



CAIN'S WIFE. 139 

Chapter XII. 

WHERE FELL YOUR AX-HEAD? 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

I will read the Word of God from 2 Kings, the sixth chap- 
ter, beginning with the first verse: "And the sons of the 
prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we 
dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, 
unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us 
make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he ?n- 
swered, Go ye. And one said, Be pleased, I pray thee, and 
go with thy servants. And he answered, I will go. So he 
went with them. And when they came to Jordan, they cut 
down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the ax-head fell 
into the water: and he cried and said, Alas, master! for it 
was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where fell it? 
And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and 
cast it in thither, and made the iron to swim. And he said. 
Take it up to thee. And he put out his hand, and took it." 

This forms one of the most remarkable stories of the Bible, 
from the first words, indicating the dissatisfaction of the sons of 
the prophets in their uncomfortable quarters, to the last line, 
which tells us that the young man reached out his hand and took 
the ax-head. These stalwart sons of the prophets, addressing 
the grand old successor of Elijah, said unto him, "Behold now, 
the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us" — that is, 
"it is too small; we need larger quarters." If you consider 
the church buildings in the average community, you will have 
a fair conception of the moral and spiritual conditions of the 
town. One of the first things the intelligent business man looks 



i 4 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

for in a community is the size and quality of the church build- 
ings. When the churches are about the size of an average box- 
stall, you can count on it, the citizenship of a community fur- 
nishing such disreputable places of worship for the people are 
puerile, stingy, pusillanimous, good-for-nothing milk-sops. It 
can easily be said in every community, comparing the member- 
ship of the churches with the vast numbers of the people who 
are out of the kingdom of God, "The place where we dwell is 
too strait for us." Only about 5 per cent of the men of Amer- 
ica are members of the Church, and only about 3 per cent are 
active workers. God, in looking upon the lazy, self-satisfied 
churches of our nation, thunders again the command to Zion, 
"Enlarge thy borders" — in other words, "Wake up and get 
busy." I would have you understand, however, that God in no 
wise wants proselyting or dishonorable methods in building up 
any church. God's people are called His sheep, and any disrep- 
utable proselyter who will steal God's sheep will steal your 
sheep if he gets a chance. There are contemptible organiia- 
tions in our country which simply fatten upon the ignoble and 
despicable methods of proselyting. For instance, you take that 
bunch of skillet-headed Seventh-Day Adventists as an example. 
They are sowing this country down with tracts and papers and 
cheap books filled with infamy, falsehood, and perverted Script- 
ures. They claim that the Pope of Rome substituted the Ro- 
man Sunday for the original Sabbath of the Lord which God 
Almighty had set apart, which day from time immemorial was 
Saturday. That statement is an absurdity and a falsity on the 
face of it. They therefore deal at considerable length with the 
proposition of the Pope being the beast as spoken of in Revela- 
tion 13:18; and while the hypothetical name of the beast is in 
the Greek Lateinos, and I will here present the calculation 
from the Greek which forms the basis of the contention that the 
word Lateinos refers specifically to the Latin Church legic- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 141 

ally centering in the Pope of Rome. The Greek letters here 
follow, with their numerical significance: 



A' = 30 


L 


A' = 1 


A 


r = 300 


T 


E' = 5 


E 


/' = 10 


I 


W = 50 


N 


0' = 70 


O 


I' = 200 


S 



666 

The main stumbling-block of the world, in regard to the 
Sabbath question, occurs as a result of an erroneous translation 
of Matthew 28:1, and similar verses, which in the revised as 
well as the old authorized versions substantially read: "In 
the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day 
of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to see 
the sepulchre." It is impossible for me to understand how any 
person who knows anything about the Greek language should 
translate Sabbalon, "first day of the week' It m nowise 
indicates first day of the week, and cannot, from any claim 
of flexibility, be twisted into such meaning. The Sabbath 
following the crucifixion was a Pentecostal Sabbath; it there- 
fore was forty-eight hours long, and not twenty-four hours long. 
The resurrection of Jesus did not occur on the "first day of the 
week," but it did occur on Sunday, and, according to the in- 
spired record of the Holy Ghost, it was the first of the Sabbaths, 
as the Greek Testament plainly asserts. The old original Sun 
Day occurred annually, therefore could not occur e\ery seven 
days. The Roman week was eight days long, so if they had 
the festival or holiday this week on Sunday, it would occur next 
week on Monday, and the week following on Tuesday, and so 
on. God, in speaking definitely to the children of Israel in 



i 4 2 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Hosea, the second chapter and eleventh verse, said: "I will 
also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, 
and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts." Abib T, 8, 15, 
22, 29; Iyar 6, 13, 20, 27; Sivan 4, 5, 12; Tisri 1,8, 15, 
22 — were required to be Sabbath days by the law of God to 
ancient Israel. These Sabbaths could no more occur on Sat- 
urday every year than Christmas or the Fourth of July can occur 
on Saturday every year. The Sabbath of the ancient Jew there- 
fore changed to a different day every year. God ended these 
changeable Sabbaths with the Sabbath of the resurrection, which 
is our Sunday. The council which gave the title of pope to the 
bishop of Rome in the year 1073 had no more to do with the 
changing of the Sabbath fro.n Saturday to Sunday than I had. 
Ignatius, who was located in Antioch, doubtless in the year 69 
A. D., made this statement: '"Every lover of Christ celebrates 
the Lord's day, consecrated to the resurrection of Christ, as the 
queen and chief of all days." The proper rendering of Mat- 
thew 28: 1 , as the Greek word for the Sabbath is plural and not 
singular, would read substantially as follows: "In the end of 
the Sabbaths [fulfilling the prophecy of Hosea 2:11], as it be- 
gan to dawn toward the first of the Sabbaths, came Mary Mag- 
dalene and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre." Martin 
Luther gave practically this rendition eighty-nine years before 
the King James version was issued. Young's translation of the 
Bible also gives this literal translation of Matthew 28:1 and all 
similar verses bearing upon the Sabbath question. (Young's 
translation, Matthew 28:1 ; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1 ; John 
20:1-19.) It seems to me that it is time for the people who 
call themselves scholars to quit their infernal nonsense in dealing 
with adverse criticisms, and begin to stand for the integrity of the 
Holy Writ. Sunday is the true Sabbath of God and should 
be the delight and joy of all children of God throughout the 
world. 



CAIN'S WIFE. ~ 'i 43 

Christian Science is another proselyting institution of the 
Devil. I have studied the best text-books in the world on the 
psychic treatment or diseases, and I am compelled to say in the 
light of the admission on the part of Mrs. Eddy in her book, 
erroneously called the "Key to the Scriptures," in which she says 
she discovered mental healing and named it Christian Science, 
that she has no more business to claim to be the originator of 
mental healing than I have; and she had no more business to 
forge the name of Jesus Christ to the practice of mental healing 
than I have to forge your name to a check and get money out of 
the bank. I would be just as honest pursuing that kind of 
business as Mrs. Eddy was in coupling her despicable graft to 
the name of the Son of God. In the light of Mrs. Eddy's 
ukase that there is no sin, and that Christian Science women 
are by "spiritual creativeness" to bear children; that the mar- 
riage tie is, in its sexual meaning, unnecessary in the propagation 
of the species — in the name of grateful humanity, whose joy is 
spouting forth like the majestic typhoon, I proceed to apotheo- 
size the Witch of Boston! 

Here 's to the Witch who produces babies without fathers ; 
who grows feathers on the sand-rock, hair on the comet's tail, 
leaves on the mouse, apples on the berry-bush, tomatoes on the 
rainbow, lemons on the Milky Way, pumpkins on the Northi 
Pole, strawberries on the South Pole! 

All hail to the Witch who has changed the leopard's spots 
and the Ethiopian's skin! 

Hals off to the Witch who has made "good," "right," 
"light," "love," "good right," "right good," "love light," 
"light love," out of murder, adultery, thievery, arson, affinity- 
ism, and every crime in the category of crookedness! Coats off 
to the Witch who has with one official pronunciamento abol- 
ished all sin ! Shoes off to the Witch who threw a scare into 
the Devil and chased him, it, or her into "innocuous desuetude" ! 



144' CAIN'S WIFE. 

Pockctbooks open to the Witch who has blotted all pain and 
sickness from the universe! 

Hell open to the Witch whose infernal cult will cause free- 
love to spread, adultery to corrode, and bastardy to blight the 
nation ! 

There are some pan-demics of damnation threatening our 
Republic in its moral and spiritual integrity; they are: the 
whisky traffic, socialism, communism, anarchy, infidelity, Unit- 
arianism, and Christian Science. "Let God arise; let His 
enemies be scattered!" 

Dr. Du Bois, of Switzerland, has been treating nervous 
disoiders for perhaps twenty-five years with the Psychic Meth- 
od, and he can give the defunct leaders of the Christian Science 
cult ten thousand pointers, and he in no wise connects his plan 
of work with any claim to religion. 

The issue in this great campaign is not, Which church shall 
receive the largest number of accessions? but, Shall we be able 
to lead the great mass of unconverted people to the Lord Jesus 
Christ? Regeneration is the message, and regeneration is the 
method of building up the kingdom of God and enlarging the 
borders of Zion. 

I notice a definite aim stated in the Scripture lesson. 
Someone said: "Let us go to the Jordan." There must be 
a definite aim on the part of the people who expect to win out 
in any great undertaking. Nehemiah appeared as cup-bearer 
before Artaxerxes the king in Shushan the palace. (When I 
was in London some years ago, I saw a bath-tub and several 
stone pillars from that ancient palace, and when I thought that 
possibly Nehemiah had taken baths in that stone tub and had 
leaned against those colossal pillars, it made the story of Nehe- 
miah seem more real. ) His face was very sad ; the king, notic- 
ing that he was not ill, wondered at his sorrow, and inquired 
concerning the cause of his sadness. Nehemiah said: "I have 
just had a letter from Jerusalem, and I have been informed that 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 43 

the city lieth waste, the walls are razed to the ground, and sor- 
row and suffering blight my beloved people." The king said: 
"What do you want?" Nehemiah replied: "I want to go 
to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls." The king replied: "I 
will not only give you permission to go, but I will send a com- 
pany of soldiers to protect you and will order the governors to 
furnish you materials with which to build the wall." Nehe- 
miah engaged the people in the great pursuit of building; and 
Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, some Arabi- 
ans, some Ashdodites, and Geshem, an Arabian sheik, opposed 
Nehemiah. Some of them asked: "What do these feeble 
Jews? Will they fortify themselves? Will they make an end 
in a day? If a fox runs upon the wall which they build, it 
will fall down." Nehemiah said nothing, but kept the work 
going. Finally, when they discovered that they could not dis- 
courage the intrepid builders with ridicule, they threatened 
them; and Nehemiah put a sword in the hand of every builder 
and instructed the builders to fight for their city. 

The Church of God in America has been on the defensive 
too long. It has been playing sham battle with the Devil; 
preachers have been firing sugar-coated bread pills when they 
ought to have used thirteen-inch shells and large-sized cannon- 
balls. God help us to press the battle to the gates, and tear 
the gates off and go in and possess the land ! Use the sword of 
God's Spirit while ye build the walls of Jerusalem. 

When they discovered that their opposition to Nehe- 
miah could not prevent his splendid work, they suggested a 
compromise. They said: "Come down to the plains of Ono, 
Colonel Nehemiah; we want to have a sociable talk with you; 
you are a mighty fine fellow. We want you to visit us." 
Nehemiah said, "O no," and then he wisely added, "They 
sought to do me mischief." Church member, hear me; when- 
ever the Devil suggests a card party, bridge whist, progressive 
euchre, a dance, a visit to the theatre, give the answer of the 



1 46 CAIN'S WIFE. 

intrepid Nehemiah, "Oh, no," for the Devil seeks to do you 
mischief. 

Nehemiah and the workers finished the walls in fifty- 
two days, and they accomplished this seeming impossibility be- 
cause "the people had a mind to work." The people did not 
go there to growl at Nehemiah, but to do what he wanted done. 
When a team balks or stops to kick, they never pull an ounce. 
The chariot wheels of salvation seem stationary in some com- 
munities, because the church members have stopped to kick and 
quibble and split theological hairs as long as from here to New 
York city. The leader of the sons of the prophets g^ve this 
advice to the woodsmen. "Take eveiy man a beam." Not a 
method, not an opinion, not a kick, not an objection. There 
are some old fossils in cur churches who were born in the ob- 
jective case. (Laughter.) They object to anything and 
everything which means health and life and vigor and victory 
to the cause of God. Their object was to erect a place to 
dwell. Eternal permanency, thank God, is the foundation of 
real evangelism. I expect to meet people in Heaven end shake 
hands with them a million years from to-night, whom I have led 
to Christ in this city. 

Elisha said, "Go ye"; this meant divine authority, for 
he was God's man. Some sensible young man said to the 
great prophet, "Be pleased to go with us"; and Elisha said, 
"I will go." Elisha was the ^successor of Elijah. One day 
Elisha and Elijah left Gilgal, and Elijah, seeking to test 
Elisha, said to him: "Tarty here, I pray thee, for the Lord 
hath sent me to Bethel." And Elisha said unto him: "As the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." So 
they went down to Bethel, and the sons of the prophets that 
were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him: "Do you 
know that the Lord is going to take Elijah to Heaven to-day?" 
And Elisha said: "Yes, I know it; hold your peace." And 
Elijah said to Elisha: "Tarrv here at Bethel, for the Lord 



CAIN'S WIFE. 147 

hath sent me to Jericho." But the wise successor to Elijah 
said: "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not 
leave thee." So they came to Jericho, and the sons of the 
prophets at Jericho came out to Elisha and said: "Do you 
know that the Lord is going to take your master away from you 
to-day?" And he answered: "Certainly I know it; hold 
your peace." And Elijah said unto him: "Tarry, I pray 
thee, here at Jericho, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan." 
But Elisha said: "As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, 
I will not leave thee." And fifty men of the sons of the proph- 
ets went and stood to view afar off the marvelous translation of 
Elijah, So they stood over by the Jordan, and Elijah took his 
mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters and they 
were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on 
dry ground. After they had crossed the river, Elijah said to 
Elisha: "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away 
from thee." And Elisha said: "I pray thee, let a double por- 
tion of thy spirit be upon me." Elijah answered: "Thou 
hast asked a hard thing : nevertheless, if thou see me when I am 
taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not 
be so." A little later they were walking along talking, and be- 
hold a chariot of fire and horses of fire came sweeping down 
from Heaven, and the men were parted. Elisha stood, while 
angelic choirs and heavenly soldiers, with the clash of eternal 
armament, accompanied Elijah by a whirlwind into Heaven. 
Elisha stood transfixed with awe and amazement, and he 
shouted out: "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and 
the horsemen thereof!" And he saw Elijah no more. He 
picked up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back 
to the bank of Jordan, and he took the mantle of Elijah and 
smote the waters and said: "Where is the Lord God of Eli- 
jah?" And the waters parted and Elisha went over, and the 
sons of the prophets came out and bowed themselves to the 
ground before Eliiah's capable successor. The TnrWan anrl 



148 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Elisha are two inspiring words in connection with Bible history. 
A man of God who made Naaman's leprosy to cease by giving 
God's prescription could certainly make the iron swim. These 
young men wanted to associate with a man who knew God face 
to face. My soul has thrilled with the touch of holy power 
when I have come in contact with one of God's mighty men. 
The very atmosphere seems surcharged with Heaven's fire, when 
you are in the presence of a woman who walks close to God. 

The Scripture here says: "The young men art wood." 
That is exactly what they went out to do. Definite purpose, 
continuity of design, specific effort, combine the essentials of 
victory. The Jordan, that historical spot so marvelous in its 
scenes of the manifestations of God's interest in His people; 
great things happened there. Many years ago, when Daniel 
Webster, the peerless American orator, was asked to deliver an 
oration on the battlefields of Bunker Hill, they say a hundred 
thousand people crowded around the speaker's stand. When 
finally the lives of the occupants of the stand were endangered, 
as well as the lives of many who were close to the heavy tim- 
bers, Webster, seeing the danger of the moment, sprang to his 
feet and shouted, with thunderous command, "Men, stand back! 
you are endangering our lives." The men answered: "Mr. 
Webster, it is impossible for us to stand back ; they are crowd- 
ing us from the rear." Webster, taking in ths situation at a 
glance, summoning all his psychic energy, said with cyclonic 
power: "Nothing is impossible at Bunker Hill. Men, stand 
back!" And, as if by magic, the thousands swayed back from 
the speaker's stand and saved the lives of hundreds. This tab- 
ernacle is located on holy ground, for God created it, and in 
the name of Almighty God, in the name of Jesus Christ, in the 
name of the Holy Spirit, in the name of the cherubim and sera- 
phim and all Heaven's highest hierarchy, I say to the Church of 
God in this great tabernacle, Nothing is impossible to him that 
believeth! (Shouts of "Amen!" and applause.) 



CAIN'S WIFE. "149 

Back to the Scripture lesson for the; closing moments of 
my message. One young man was at work chopping when his 
ax-head slipped from the handle and fell into the water. I 
don't know why he didn't have sense enough to put a wedge in 
the end of the ax-handle and fasten it on. He had borrowed 
the ax; he should have at least taken some precaution to guar- 
antee its safe return. That ax-head represented his usefulness 
on that occasion, but the ax-head had fallen into the water. 
The young man cried out in dismay, "Alas, master! for it* was 
borrowed." With John MacNiel, I want to commend the 
young man here for his intelligence in one thing: he had sense 
enough to stop chopping when the ax-head had fallen into the 
water. (Laughter.) It is a pitiable sight when you see a lit- 
tle preacher whacking away with a bare ax-handle. (Laugh- 
ter.) It is also a sad thing to see a church member who has 
lost his ax-head and goes through life with a bare ax-handle, 
never making a mark on the Devil's kingdom. That ax-head 
spiritually is your power with God and with man. Where fell 
it? The prophet asked the young man the question, and he 
pointed straight to the spot where it fell. Certainly he knew 
where the ax-head fell, and so do you. Some of you men 
dropped your ax-head at a horse trade, when you traded some 
old bone-spavined, wind-broken, ring-boned, thirty-year-old 
bunch of heaves for a fresh three-year-old colt. (Laughter.) 
I can see some of you old rascals dodge. (Applause.) I 
know how you filed off the teeth of that horse and polished them 
up. You left off the cipher which belongs to the figure three 
when you told his age. You dropped your ax-head. Some of 
you women dropped your ax-head on the ball-room floor when 
you danced with some licentious rascal and said you couldn't see 
any harm in the dance. Some ot you dropped your ax-head 
when you gambled for a piece or cui-glass or sterling silver or 
fancy china, or something else, at your bridge whist 01 other 
progressive gambling games Some of you dropped your ax- 



i5o CAIN'S WIFE. 

head at the theater when you paid money to see a foul, Sabbath- 
desecrating, whisky-soaked bunch of profane, adulterous repro- 
bates pretend to stand as the friends of virtue. Where fell 
your ax-head? Some of you business men dropped yours when 
you lied to a customer about some cheap material which you 
represented as all-wool, a yard wide, and a foot thick, when it 
was two-thirds cotton. 

Oh, if we can get the ax-head and the ax-handle con- 
nected, and get a company of people who have backbone 
enough to chop, we will see victory in this great campaign ! You 
can't cut down the Devil's hardened, seasoned timber with an 
ax-handle. Don't come whining around me, telling me that 
you don't know where you dropped your ax-head, you old hyp- 
ocrite; you can see the ripple on the water now. You know 
where that ax-head fell. There is some silent witness, some 
dark alley, some stone pillar, some brick house, some frame 
house, some place where the ax-head fell. Do you sing that 
doleful wail: "Where is the joy that once I knew, when first 
I loved the Lord?" You go back and find the ax-head and 
the joy comes with it. The prophet said: "Where fell it?" 
The young man pointed to the spot. The ax-head lies to-day 
right where you dropped it. It has never moved an inch, and it 
never will move until you move it. The prophet turned to some 
prophet's son and had him cut a cudgel, and he threw the cud- 
gel at the very spot where fell the ax-head, and the iron did 
swim. I have been cutting cudgels here this evening, and throw- 
ing them at the place of compromise where fell your ax-head. 

Brethren of the ministry, I believe God gave us in the ac- 
tion of Ehsha the prophet the great example that He expects us 
to follow. If we would cause the iron to swim, let us throw the 
cudgel of God's truth at the spot where the ax-head fell. It 
may crack the head or the hands, or the heart or the heels of 
some of the people of this audience, but here goes the cudgel ! 
I want you to find the ax-head. Sometimes the ax-head is lost 



CAIN'S WIFE. 151 

because of neighborhood gossip, denominational fussing, political 
intrigue, commercial dishonesty. Some years ago a friend of 
mine was conducting a meeting oack in Indiana. The meeting 
seemed destined to fail, when one of the ministers said: "I be- 
lieve I know where the trouble lies." He went to a prominent 
church officer and said: "Judge, I have heard certain things 
about you and I want to know if they are true. If they are 
not, I will stand by you ; if they are, I want to help you." The 
judge began to weep, and he said: "They are all true and 
more too. I have been living a double life, and I want you to 
pray for me that I may get right with God and man." They 
knelt in prayer, and when they arose the judge led the way to 
a man who had been his political enemy for years. He asked 
the man to forgive him, and the two prominent citizens went to- 
gether to the meeting. The judge arose and made a powerful 
appeal through his humble confession of his sin. The audience 
was melted to tears, and sixty people surrendered that night to 
Jesus Christ. The judge led his political enemy to Jesus Christ. 
He got his ax-head in working order. Go thou and do like- 
wise. The honor of the young man, yea, the cause of God was 
represented by his action in securing the ax-head. Suppose he 
had taken the ax-handle home and slipped it slyly into the 
wood-yard, without making the loss of the head right. The 
prophets would have been held in disrepute. 

Neighbor, hear me! When you fail to live the religion 
of Christ which you profess, you misrepresent and disgrace your 
Lord. Where fell your ax-head?; 



i 5 2 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter XIII. 

CAPTAIN NAAMAN. THE LEPER. 

International copyright secured, 1 909, French E. Oliver. 

Text: "Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king 
of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, be- 
cause by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria; he 
was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper." — 2 Kings 
5:1. 

I never read this text but that my soul vibrates with ad- 
miration for Captain Naaman because he is mentioned as an 
honorable man, and a mighty man of valor. It is natural, if 
one has any sense or spirit of patriotism, to respond to military 
regalia and renown. A man hardly deserves the right of fran- 
chise in our country whose heart is not thrilled when he listens 
to the patriotic anthems, "America," "The Red, White, and 
Blue," "The Star-Spangled Banner" — to say nothing of 
"Yankee Doodle" and "Dixie." 

This gallant captain of Syria's host was a leper. How 
frequently do men complain because of the pomp and power 
and wealth of some, while others are in abject poverty and dis- 
tress. Some time ago the newspapers spoke of an American 
multi-millionaire who was offering a million dollars for a new 
stomach. Let me impress upon the hard-working, strong-armed, 
brave-hearted man, who is able to labor diligently, enjoy three 
meals a day, and has earned a night's repose when the shades 
of evening gather and night's curtains veil the West, that 
according to this computation he is worth a million. I feel dis- 
posed to pity the man who has unwieldy riches; particularly 
these old gouty, rheumatic, lymphatic, peritonize, gastritic ras- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 153 

cals. I wouldn't have my body paralyzed with physical in- 
firmities brought on by gormandizing, liquor-drinking, and other 
kinds of rascality, for all the money in the world. A man 
hasn't a great deal of sense who h envious of the rich. David 
gives us a splendid picture of the uncertainty of riches and the 
reward of righteousness ; in the thirty-seventh Psalm (that mar- 
velous poem, which is a sure cure for the blues, and which lifts 
high the banner, "Fret not thyself," repeatedly) we read: "I 
have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like 
a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: 
yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the per- 
fect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is 
peace." 

Here is the story of a great man who was doubtless the 
saddest man in Damascus, the world's most ancient city. He 
had a wife and a home, doubtless a beautiful home, but he 
could not enjoy his home, nor could he have fellowship with his 
wife ; he was a leper. Moral leprosy keeps many a man from 
enjoying the sweet ties of the home circle. There are many 
wanderers on the face of the earth to-night, who have had the 
touch of the influence of the home ; they became lepers, moral 
lepers, and that means social ostracism ultimately. I was on a 
lecture tour in a Western State some months ago. I sat in the 
hotel office at a little junction point, waiting for an east-bound 
train. I saw a man eyeing me very intently; I looked at him 
and wondered why he was so interested in me. Some time 
later the manager of the hotel asked me to go to the kitchen, and 
while I rarely if ever go farther than the dining-room in the aver- 
age hotel, I told him I would go to the kitchen and find cut 
what the man wanted. The manager informed me that the 
cook had asked for me. When I entered the kitchen, he met 
me and said: "Do you remember me?" I replied: "I do 
not." He said: "During your meeting six or seven years ago 
in , Kansas, I ran a hotel ; my daughter was converted 



154 CAIN'S WIFE. 

in your meeting. Since that time I have lost my home and my 
business." He continued with evident bitterness in his soul: 
"I have no business to be in this kitchen as a hotel cook. I was 
educated for the ministry in the Garrett Biblical Institute. I 
am a graduate of the Northwestern University. I became a 
skeptic and my infidelity has cost me my home, my peace of 
mind, my business, and perhaps my soul's salvation. What am 
I to dc?" I said to him: "You are a long distance from 
God, from peace, from happiness, from prosperity. If you are 
willing to come all the way back to God, all these things shall 
be added unto you, for Christ said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God, and His righteousness.' " What mattered his intellectual 
polish, his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, since he was a 
leper) He could, the day I saw him, take the dry bones of 
Church history and make a seminary rattle; but he was headed 
for damnation, and I plainly told him so, and urged him to re- 
pent. He replied, with trembling voice and tear-stained cheeks: 
"God knows I am willing to do anything to get right." I left 
him a little later, having heard the promise that he would re- 
pent and serve God. 

Captain Naaman was compelled to absent himself from 
close proximity to his loved ones and the distinguished men of 
the nation, also his troops. Poor sad-faced Naaman! High 
position, military honor, the insignia of authority, could not give 
him happiness. He was overwhelmed with the burning con- 
sciousness of his physical stigma ; he was a leper. There prob- 
ably had never been in Syria a more courageous officer; he was 
doubtless the delight of the dark-eyed, brown-faced maidens; 
he must have been a gallant swain, an ideal lover; a dashing 
officer, always in the line of promotion; at last captain of the 
host, the highest position in the realm next to the king — in fact, 
a rival of the king in the affections of the people, for in that day 
military prowess was considered with greater kindness than it is 
in our generation. Perhaps there had never been a happier 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 55 

bride in Syria than the beautiful girl whom Naaman led to the 
marriage altar; the wedding procession was doubtless made up 
of the distinguished friends and relatives of both the young peo- 
ple. The prospects were golden. High position, wealth, and 
love were all theirs. What in the world could shift the scene 
or blot this happy picture from the horizon of hope? I gather 
the story of his past happiness simply from my own happy ex- 
periences. I find it overlooked in the message of the text, for 
in his own soul, at that time, and in his own home, the word 
Naaman seemed eternally welded to that accursed name Icha- 
bod — the glory is departed! 

Leprosy is a terrible disease! The people of the Orient 
have invariably led the world as sufferers from this blighting 
scourge. So contaminating was the diseac: that the leper was 
repudiated as an outcast. The law of God was very strong in 
this respect. In the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Levit- 
icus the law of leprosy is very clearly stated. Beginning with 
the second verse of chapter thirteen, we read: "When a man 
shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, 
and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy ; then 
he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his 
sons the priests : and the priest shall look on the plague in the 
skin of the flesh : and when the hair in the plague is turned white, 
and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is 
a plague of leprosy : and the priest shall look on him, and pro- 
nounce him unclean And if the priest see that, behold, 

the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him 
unclean: it is a leprosy. When the plague of leprosy is in a 
man, then he shall be brought unto the priest; and the priest 
shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the skin, 
and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh 
in the rising ; it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the 
priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up : 
for he is unclean. And if a leprosy break out abroad in the 



1 56 CAIN'S WIFE. 

skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the 
plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest 
looketh; then the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the 
leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean 
that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean. But 
when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean." 

The leprosy at times occurred in a boil. Sometimes the 
leprosy began in the hair. The priests became experts in diag- 
nosis, so clear was the law of God given to Moses, and there is 
no question but that certain types of the leprosy of the Old Tes- 
tament correspond to the venereal diseases of the present day. 
(Leprosy has been called the fourth stage of syphilis.) The 
record continues: "And if there be in the bald head, or bald 
forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his 
bald head or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look 
upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish 
in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appear- 
eth in the skin of the flesh; he is a leprous man, he is unclean: 
the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean ; his plague is in 
his head. And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes 
shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering up- 
on his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean! All the 
days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he 
is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his hab- 
itation be." 

The garments of the leper were ordered burned, for the 
leprosy seemed to enter the very woof and warp of the cloth. 
The law reads: "The garment also that the plague of leprosy 
is in, whether it be a woolen garment, or a linen garment; 
whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woolen; 
whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin; and if the 
plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, 
either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a 
plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest." After 



CAIN'S WIFE. 157 

shutting the plague-smitten garment up for seven days, the priest 
examined it, and if the plague had spread, it was considered a 
fretting leprosy and was pronounced unclean, and was immedi- 
ately burned. Leprosy seemed at times to appear in the houses. 
If, after removing certain stones and scraping others, and put- 
ting on new plaster, the leprosy continued in evidence, the house 
was ordered destroyed and all the stone and limber and mortar 
carried out of the city into an unclean place. 

The ceremony followed in the official cleansing of the 
leper was a most interesting event. The leper was brought to 
the priest and examined, and if found healed, two birds were 
brought, while cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop were also used. 
One of the birds was killed in an earthen vessel over running 
water ; the living bird, the cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop were 
all dipped in the blood of the bird that was lulled over tl.2 run- 
ning water; then the man was sprinkled with thb blood seven 
times ; the living bird was let loose in an open field. Then the 
man was ordered to shave off all his hair and wash himself in 
water. He was permitted to come into the camp, but could not 
enter his tent for seven days. On the seventh day he was to 
enjoy another complete shave, which included his eyebrows, then 
he was to take another bath, wash his clothes, and he was pro- 
nounced clean. On the eighth day he was to offer three 
lambs, some flour and oil, as a trespass offering, a wave offer- 
ing, and a sin offering. The priest took some of the blood of 
the trespass offering, and put it on the tip of the right ear of the 
man, also upon the thumb of his right hand and the great toe 
of his right foot. He also sprinkled some of the oil seven times 
before the Lord, and of the rest of the oil the priest put some up- 
on the tip of the right ear of the man, also upon the thumb of 
his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the 
blood of the trespass offering; and the remainder of the oil in 
the priest's hand was poured on the head of the man. The 
priest thereby made an atonement for him before the Lord. If 



t 5 8 CAIN'S WIFE. 

the man was poor and could not afford the three lambs, turtle 
doves or pigeons were used as the offering. 

To understand clearly the terrible stigma Naaman sufi 
fered, a brief scientific discussion of leprosy is advisable. The 
disease is described by medical authorities as an endemic, chron- 
ic, malignant, constitutional disorder, due to a specific bacillus, 
characterized by alterations in the cutaneous, nerve, and bone 
structure, varying in its morbid manifestations according to 
whether the skin, nerves, or other tissues are predominantly in- 
volved, and results in anesthesia, ulceration, necrosis, general 
atrophy, and deformity. During the past one hundred years, in 
certain sections of the world, in connection with the disease, 
there evidently have been signs of recrudescence— the state of 
being raw — and the disease has appeared in sections where it 
had never before been in evidence; it has, however, exten- 
sively prevailed ; but in recent years it is not so prolific as for- 
merly; it is found in Russia, Norway, Sweden, China, Japan, 
on the African coast, in Central and South America, Mexico, 
Cuba, the Sandwich Islands, and the British colonies; it is com- 
mon in the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans, Madeira, 
and the West Indies; and is found also in Spain, Portugal, 
Greece, Italy, France, and the United States. In symptomol- 
ogy it resembles sin, that deadly bacillus of hell which deforms, 
atrophies, ulcerates, and destroys the moral fabric ; for, like sin, 
it presents varied and multitudinous symptoms. The clinical 
aspects are never one and the same, a complete differentiation is 
naturally expected ; there are some cases which seem to evidence 
the symptoms of all the distinct types of the disease. The 
pathology of the disease, so far as investigation decides, I will 
here present : first, the incubation period ; second, the period of 
invasion; third, the macular type; fourth, the tubercular type; 
fifth, the anesthetic type; sixth, the mixed type; seventh, the 
effete type. It is peculiarly surprising to note again how lep- 
rosy resembles sin in its stage of incubation or its beginning. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 1 59 

There is apparently no primary lesion recognizable. The ob- 
server is circumscribed in his investigations on this account. 
Exposure, the result of a visit to any section where the disease is 
prevalent, has been known to bring on the disease ; there is, how- 
ever, no known period, or no number of days or weeks or months, 
between the exposure and the manifestation of the disease. It 
varies from months to years. Dr. Bidenkap reports an instance 
in which the disease developed within a few weeks after the first 
exposure. Dr. Morrow reports a case in which the disease ap- 
peared ten months after a visit to the Sandwich Islands Other 
authorities record cases indicating the period of incubation from 
ten to forty years. The state of health, the character of food, 
climate, the conditions of the surroundings, as in most every 
other exposure, will cause the manifestation of the disease to 
vary. 

A very significant statement is given by Dr. Stelwagen, 
which illustrates the subtility of the disease. He says that in 
most cases of apparent long period of incubation, the disease 
may have already been in evidence for some time, but that the 
manifestations are of such a mild character that they escape 
observation; the prodromata — that is, the forerunners of the 
disease — are not easily detected. There are some symptoms, 
however, which indicate the certainty of the disease, chilliness, 
intermittent febrile action, feverishness, malaise, disinclination 
to exertion, hebetude, debility, epistaxis, often associated with 
pain, alterations in sensibility and motor action, lassitude and 
debility, pains in the extremities, and itching of a severe degree ; 
these are doubtless the most common characteristic signs of the 
invasion of the disease, when accompanied by tingling and burn- 
ing, pricking pain, soreness, and tenderness of parts affected, 
numbness, heaviness, stiffness, with neuralgic pain; an examin- 
ation of the mucous membrane of the pharynx and upper air- 
passages will doubtless reveal specific evidences of the work of 
the deadly bacillus. The voice is altered, it becomes husky and 



160 CAIN'S WIFE. 

rough; free nasal secretions occur, the salivary secretions also 
increase. 

The macular type of leprosy is considered as a fore- 
runner of the tubercular form — in fact, it precedes the anes- 
thetic type. Slight eruptions may occur without any preceding 
symptoms; patches varying in size, of a reddish, violaceous, 
blackish, or brownish color, may be followed by depigmentation. 
The outer surface or integument often presents a dappled ap- 
pearance ; patches vary in size from a pin-head to a palm or even 
larger. The macular type is sometimes accompanied with par- 
alytic motor symptoms and sensory disturbances, leading grad- 
ually but certainly into the tubercular type, the appearance of 
tubercles and nodules, followed by ulceration on the face and 
other parts with a peculiar infiltration of the eyebrows and the 
face in general; the face, in fact, becomes frightfully deformed, 
and the condition is described technically as leontiasis, or 
satyriasis, on account of the peculiar expression of the face. 

There are 3,000,000 lepers in the world, located prac* 
tically as follows: 2,000,000 in China; 200,000 in India; 
20,000 in Japan; the remaining 780,000 are scattered through- 
out Europe, the islands of the seas, with a few in the United 
States of America. Since 1905 only 400 cases have been 
reported in the United States. 

The Bacillus leprae is a small rod bacillus; it measures 
from one-half to three-fourths of the diameter of a red corpus- 
cle, and is in length about one five-thousandth of an inch, and 
in breadth measures about one-fifth of the length. This fright- 
ful blight wholly abolishes the sensory functions. The disin- 
tegration and the destruction of the fingers and toes, the hands 
and feet, the ulnar and perineal nerves, and other nerves of the 
extiemities, is complete; paralysis often appears as a blessing in 
disguise, and ends the frightful suffering. The bacilli may 
contaminate by coming in contact with an abrasion, or may be 
inhaled and make an immediate attack upon the mucous mem- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 161 

branes of the pharynx and larynx. The children who have 
been removed from contaminated quarters in early infancy have 
almost wholly escaped the blight, even though their parents were 
lepers. Hereditary leprosy seems to prevail in only 3 per cent 
of the lepers. 

The Lepra bacilli are found in greater abundance in the 
tissues, where they appear in clumps, groups, or masses. Their 
individuality is easily demonstiated by staining the section of 
tissue or debris of an effete nodule by Ehrlich's process with 
fuchsin and methyl blue as a contrast. Their appearance in the 
connective tissue of the peripheral nerves, the lymphatic glands 
and spaces, also the sebaceous glands, is always expected ; they 
are found throughout the entire viscera — that is, the internal or- 
gans, the liver, kidneys, spleen ; also in the ovary ; practically no 
organ escapes. i 

I do not begin the method of diagnosis of the disease at 
this point in my discourse because I fear a plague of leprosy in 
this community, but I do so because the basis ©f the work of the 
diagnostician is so literally the basis of the diagnosis of the sin- 
ner's contamination with sin that I am irresistibly drawn into a 
brief diagnostic discussion. The following divisions of ideas 
and symptoms form the basis of determining the existence and 
stage of the disease. 

First: The possibility of exposure suggested by the hab- 
itat or place of dwelling. (Evil communications corrupt the 
soul.) 

Second: The history of the exposure and the condition 
of the persons affected should be considered. ("There is a sin 
unto death.") 

Third: Eruptions on the extremities noted. ("They 
devised new sins.") 

Fourth : When discolored areas of skin are accompanied 
by anesthesia, insensibility to the touch, heat, or cold. ("The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die.") 



1 62 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Fifth: Disturbances of a trophic character: (a) perfor- 
ating ulcers; (b) muscular atrophy, particularly affecting the 
hands (producing claw hands) ; (c) clubbed fingers; (J) de- 
formity of the hands and feet from the loss of the phalanges; 
(e) persistent incurable ulcers at the articulations or join'.s of the 
phalanges of the fingers and toes; (/) facial paralysis. ("Sow 
to the wind — reap the whirlwind.") 

Sixth: The finger-nails become blunted and discolored. 
("Evil pursueth sinners.") 

Seventh: The macular areas present symmetrical erup- 
tions with bilateral — two-sided — distribution: (a) dusky red 
discolorations; (b) the discoloration is of elliptical shape, the 
outer rinc is elevated and deeply pigmented, while the centei 
remains lighter — in fact, a dirty white color; (c) anesthesia 
marks these macular areas; (<i) the app.-ran.nce of the eruptions 
on the legs and forearms, etc. ("The wages of sin is death.") 

Eighth: The appearance of tubercles and nodules. 
("Fools make a mock at sin.") 

Ninth: The absolute loss of the original expression of 
the face. The eyelids and lips become terribly nisfigured. The 
expression of the eye is almost like that of a hunted beast, fur- 
tive and pathetic to look upon. ("Be sure your sin will find 
you out.") 

Tenth: The vocal cords invariably become involved be- 
cause of the immediate effect upon the nasal pharynx and the 
larynx. The voice becomes metallic, nasal, and raucous or 
hoarse. ("The way of the transgressor is hard.") 

The pathologic and pathogenic study of h-prosy is inter- 
esting from a medical standpoint. The leading medical author- 
ities of the world practically consider the virulent forms of lep- 
rosy incurable. It is a bone and blood and nerve, ligament, 
cell, protoplasm, and skin disease. It is considered by students 
of the Bible the greatest type of sin in all the world. Its be- 
ginning is small, a tiny spot, but that tiny spot means social 



CAIN'S WIFE. 163 

ostracism, a rottenness of body so horrible that the bones sepa- 
rate at the joints, the fingers drop away by pieces, until at last 
the hand is gone ; then the arm drops off at the elbow, then at 
the shoulder. The toes are lost similarly; the bones of the 
feet separate and drop off until the subject is worse than dead. 
Sin is as subtle as the leprosy in its beginning and as zymot- 
ic. I have never known a young man who started out in life 
with the determination of becoming a palsied drunken wreck, dy- 
ing in the slime and mud of the street, by deliberate choice. I 
have never personally talked with a criminal in any prison who 
told me that he started out in life with the firm expectation of 
spending years in the penitentiary. I have seen hundreds of ne- 
groes in the chain-gangs of the South. If you talk with them, 
you will discover that they all intended to be honorable citizens, 
and many of them profess to be religious; some of them are 
preachers! The subtility of sin, the power of temptation, has 
proven too much for weak humanity; whether in the chicken- 
stealing of the negro, or his crap-shooting or games of policy ; or 
where the social life has been too much for the young man and 
he has become a drunkard as a result of his tippling, or a gam- 
bler as a result of his social card games, or a thief as a result 
of his small dishonesties, or a murderer as the result of an un- 
controlled outburst of temper. I have talked to fallen women 
in our meetings in great cities and in small towns. I have never 
met a woman who named deliberate choice as the cause of her 
infamy and degradation. Women naturally shudder in the 
presence of things grossly immoral. A woman is as far from 
her God-given realm when she is in vile profanity, contemptible 
drunkenness, and a life of impurity, as a bird of paradise would 
be in Hell. The select dance was not intended by brainless 
mothers and stupid fathers as the beginning of the downfall of 
their sweet daughters; nevertheless it has become a channel of 
degradation in which close to fifty thousand young women are 
dashed to ruin annually in America. Behold, how great a 



1 64 CAIN'S WIFE. 

matter a little fire kindleth! A woman placed her kitchen 
lamp in the barn while she milked her cow. The cow kicked 
the lamp over and set the barn afire, and that night Chicago 
burned! In Ceylon there are more than forty serpents with a 
deadly sting; in every case death will result practically inside 
of a minute, if you are stung by any one of the forty species. 
Whenever it becomes safe to make a playmate of the deadly 
cobra of India, the rattlesnake of the plains, or any of the multi- 
tudinous venomous vipeis of this world, then it will be intelligent 
and safe to play with sin. In California gigantic trees grow 
105 feet in circumference, and 35 feet in diameter; some of 
them are more than 200 feet in height. I have been told that 
the seeds of these marvelous policemen of the forest are smaller 
than a mustard seed. The beginning of sin is scarcely 
discernible. 

I said a while ago the leper was a physical and a social 
outcast. Suppose all moral lepers in this audience, in this com- 
munity, in the world, were looked upon by the rest of humanity 
as they appear in point of guilt before God and the angels! 
The leper's torn garments, covered lip, with his dirge-like wail, 
"Unclean! unclean!" adds pathos to the picture when you con- 
sider an incurable leper. I read the law in your hearing ; they 
were compelled to protect the unconlaminaled, they were only 
permitted to walk down the middle of the highway, and were 
expected to sound the warning upon the approach of any travel- 
er. Imagine the lonely traveler, seeing a man in the distance; 
perhaps he has come on a journey of many days or weeks ; he 
has seen no human habitation; he is anxious to hear tidings, to 
talk to anybody ; as he approaches, he notes the laborious walk- 
ing of the man who comes toward him : the head is bowed, soon 
the depressed countenance is lifted, and he beholds a traveler ap- 
proaching; instantly the wail is sounded, "Unclean! unclean!" 
The traveler dare not stop; he dare net engage in conversation 
with this outcast. Suppose a father seeks his son. He searches 



CAIN'S WIFE. 165 

the desert9 ; at last he discovers in the caverns or rocky declivi- 
ties that which appears to be a sort of human habitation. He 
makes his approach; he hears a voice which he recognizes, 
crying out: "Unclean! unclean!" It is his son. Could a 
mother sufler a sadder blow than to discover her long-lost daugh- 
ter with a bunch of lepers ? Apply the truth morally. When 
the father searches for the boy who left home with a good herit- 
age and with high hopes, and he is found at last in the city a 
moral leper, a drunken bum, an embezzler, a gambler, or a 
common thug, we naturally associate the words, "Unclean, un- 
clean," with the moral leper as we do with the physical leper. 
Many a wayward, wanton girl in the submerged tenth of the 
slum-life of the great cities, who is being anxiously sought by 
a loving mother, will be compelled by outward evidences, if not 
with worded warning, to shock and grieve her mother because 
she is "unclean, unclean." 

Young woman, are you keeping company with a young 
man who is a moral leper? Husband, as you go back to your 
home, do you go with the lash of conscience urging you to 
cry out because of your moral leprosy, "Unclean, unclean"? 
Young man, as you stand at the marriage altar with the pure, 
trusting girl, if your character is reprobate and your physical 
life debauched because of your impurity and degeneracy, before 
God I charge you that you should be compelled to cry out for 
the defense of the innocent girl, "Unclean! unclean!" Moral 
lepers fill our cities and make the air loathsome with their pro- 
fanity, low-flung jests, and far-flung rascality. The farm, 
the village, the country store, the billiard-hall, the barber-shop, 
the whisky drug-store, ofttimes the livery stable, the saloon in- 
variably, and many lodge-rooms, become the spawning-place 
for the germs of moral leprosy. The steer is branded with one 
impression of the branding-iron on the plains. The mind is oft- 
times branded by the corroding influences of an idle vulgar tale 
which is poured by a moral leper into the soul of what has been 



i66 CAIN'S WIFE. 

a pure boy. I hardly ever touch a town but that I am asked 
to denounce vulgar stories, impure jests, and foul conversation, 
not only on the part of the common sinner, but frequently mem- 
bers of the Church. j 

Let us apply the protective measure to the uncontami- 
nated youth of our land. If the young man who comes to cul- 
tivate the friendship of your boy is a moral leper, discover his 
uncleanness and forbid the contamination. There are many 
boys to-day in the insane asylums of these United States, whose 
brains have become bankrupt because they were taught a sin by 
some corrupt companion. There are heart-broken girls, whose 
hearts are consumed with shame, who dare not face the pure 
mother, the proud father, because of their guilt. The moral 
inhalation of the bacillus of moral leprosy was enough. "Un- 
clean! unclean!" is the sad requiem at the funeral of the 
wanderer. 

Captain Naaman, are you going to die in your leprosy and 
have your rotting remains buried in the fashionable cemetery of 
Damascus, and have the very grave itself become impregnated 
with the deadly bacillus of your disease) Naaman speaks; 
he says: "I would gladly give my house and accumulation of 
wealth if I could be cured of this awful disease." Mrs. Naa- 
man had a maid who was a Jewish child, who had been taken 
captive in a former invasion into Palestine by the hosts of Syria. 
This little girl, seeing the sadness of her mistress, said to her one 
day: "Would God my lord were with the prophet that is 
in Samaria, for he would heal him of his leprosy." A valet 
was mightily impressed by the statement of the little maid ; he 
went in and told his lord, and finally the king, Ben-Hadad, 
called Naaman into his presence and said: "Go to, go," (in 
other words, "By all means go,") "and I will send a letter unto 
the king of Israel"; and he departed and took with him ten tal- 
ents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes 
of raiment. Captain Naaman was handed a letter to Joram, 



CAIN'S WIFE. l67 

king of Israel, in which Ben-Hadad said: "Now when this 
letter shall come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naa- 
man, my servant, to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his 
leprosy." Ben-Hadad made the blunder of sending Naaman 
to Joram, the king. Joram had no more power to cure the 
leper than a rabbit. When the letter at last was presented to 
the king of Israel, he read the letter and tore his clothing, and 
said: "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man 
doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? "Wherefore 
consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against 
me." The king thought Naaman had come to spy out the land 
and to bring en another conflict. Poor leprous Naaman, he 
never was farther from thoughts of the battle-field in his life. 
His soul was filled with a longing for the touch of healing. 
May God Almighty put that yearning in the heart of every 
moral leper in this great audience to-night. The report of the 
king's anger stirred the entire court, and at last Elisha, the man 
of God, heard that the king had rent his clothes, and he sent to 
the king a message, saying: "Wherefore hast ihou rent thy 
clothes? Let him come now to me, and he shall know there is 
a prophet in Israel." Naaman was sent to the abode of the 
prophet Elisha with his horses and chariot. Elisha did not go 
out in person, but sent a messenger unto him, saying: "Go, 
and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come unto 
thee, and thou shalt be clean." Captain Naaman was very in- 
dignant, and went away saying: "Behold, I thought he would 
surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the 
Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and cure my 
leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, bet- 
ter than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and 
be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. 

The simplicity of God's message produces conviction in our 
day the same as it did in Elisha's day. Simple obedience to the 
command of God's prophet would bring health and healing to 



168 CAIN'S WIFE. 

the soul and body of Naaman. Here he was within reach of the 
absolute liberty from the plague which he so much loathed, and 
yet he was departing from the house of the prophet in a rage. 
He probably said: "That Elisha must be a grafter. I will 
never go back to his house again. I don't like his style." 
1 hank God, he had servants who had good sense. Men of 
splendid abilities in all other matters will play the fool when 
they are under conviction. That has been evidenced in your 
community repeatedly as it has in other communities in all ages 
of the world's history. What did it matter what Naaman 
thought? He said: "I thought." His plan of curing the 
leprosy was a total failure, for he had had multitudinous op- 
portunities to have prophets, priests, fakirs, charlatans, and 
"Christian Scientists" pat the spots, go through various and 
sundry incantations, and still he was a leper. If you are ever 
saved, neighbor, you will have to take God's way of salvation. 
Captain Naaman, if you want to go back to Syria a well man, 
fit to embrace your sweet wife, worthy to kiss your little chil- 
dren, dip seven times in the Jordan. That word "seven" is a 
wonderful word, as it symbolizes completeness in regard to 
God's dealing with man. The Jordan is ofttimes muddy, and 
deep and sluggish. Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, 
seemed to be the pride of Naaman, but there is nothing men- 
tioned about the clear, dashing beauty of these Syrian rivers in 
the message of the prophet. To whom shall we go for eternal 
life? Shall we dip in the seductive waters of Abana and 
Pharpar, the waters of self-righteousness, personal aggrandize- 
ment, or shall we take the fountain opened in the house of Da- 
vid for sin and for uncleanness? Salvation is the gift of God, 
not of works, lest any man should boast. Naaman's servants 
came near and said unto him: "My father, if the prophet had 
bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? 
How much rather, then, when he saith unto thee, Wash and be 
clean?" There are any amount of men who would gladly 



CAIN'S WIFE. i6g 

build cathedrals, they would bankrupt their private treasury, 
they would write a check for $ 1 0,000,000, they would suffer 
physical pain, they would gladly give sections of land, if by so 
doing their moral leprosy, that bondage of the soul, were broken 
by the healing touch of the Great Physician. 

Neighbor, you will have to dip seven times. What does 
that mean? 

1 . Admit the existence of your disease — sin. 

2. Believe your inability to cure the disease. 

3. Repent — that is, confess and forsake your sin. 

4. Believe the imperishable promise of Jesus Christ — 
"Him that cometh unto me I will in nowise cast out." 

5. Get under the blood. 

6. Pray definitely for forgiveness and surrender your 
will to Jesus Christ. •■ 

7. Publicly confess Him before men as your personal 
Savior, and He will confess you before God and His angels. 

Naaman finally, at the suggestion of his servants, began to 
consider. He probably thought it would be the height of folly to 
come all that distance and, after hearing the prescription given 
by the prophet Elisha, to be so bull-headed that he would not 
at least try the remedy prescribed. I will make this chal- 
lenge: If you will follow with absolute honesty of purpose the 
message delivered from this platform, you will come to know 
Jesus as your personal Saviour. Church member, do not go 
whining around this meeting, saying, "I thought I could dip 
in the seductive waters of Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of 
dancing and card-playing, theater-going, whisky, lodge-joining, 
and beer-guzzling," but go to the old river Jordan and dip seven 
times ; pay the price, get the victory. Naaman at last stepped 
into the river. He dipped seven times, and the flesh came again 
as a little child. He was ready to go back to the prophet ; he 
was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude. He had a fortune 
in gold and silver with him; he would gladly give every bit of 



i 7 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

it to the prophet. When he returned to the humble house of 
the prophet, he and all his company, and stood before him, he 
said: "Behold, now I know there is no God in all the earth but 
in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy 
servant." Elisha said: "As the Lord liveth, before whom I 
stand, I will receive none." Captain Naaman urged him to take 
it, but he refused. Elisha was the successor of Elijah, who was 
fed by the ravens. Elisha doubtless figured it out that he would 
rather be fed by a Hebrew raven than lo take money from a Syr- 
ian millionaire. Faith and patiiotism are evidenced in the words 
of the prophet. Naaman then asked for two mules' burden of 
dirt; for he said: "I will henceforth offer neither burnt offer- 
ing nor sacrifices unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this 
thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth 
into the house of Rimmon lo worship there, and he leaneth on 
my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I 
bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon 
thy servant in this thing." And he said unto him, "Go in 
peace." 

The request of Naaman that he might take two mules' 
burden of earth back to Syria is one of the most beautiful pieces 
of coloring I find in this wonderful picture. He loved the very 
ground upon which he had found his healing. He wanted to 
worship upon it in the temple while Ben-Hadad, the king, wor- 
shiped his idols. Naaman felt that when he knelt upon that 
sacred soil, it would turn his thoughts to Jehovah, the God of 
Elisha. Years ago I heard my friend, M. B. Williams, while 
preaching the most remarkable sermon from this text I have ever 
heard, tell the story of a man who was converted in one of his 
Southern meetings. He came to the front where he had knelt 
in prayer and took the saw-dust upon which he had prayed and 
wept, and said: "I am going to make a pillow of this saw- 
dust, so in the years to come I can put my head on this pillow 
and remember that on this very saw-dust I met the Devil in open 



CAIN'S WIFE. 171 

conflict and fought him to a finish. It will tie me to God." 
It is a great thing to have a registered vow, a place of victory. 
You have not forgotten the joy of the day of your marriage; 
the old soldier remembers the day of his enlistment; the child 
of God remembers with great joy, and ofttimes with tears, the 
day when Jesus washed his sins away, the very spot, the very 
hour, the very minute the transaction was done, the moment 
when he could say: "I am my Lord's, and He is mine." I 
love to see men and women come to the front and make a definite 
decision, a public confession, for I believe it takes more courage, 
honesty of purpose, sincerity, and determination to enlist before 
a thousand or ten thousand people than it does to sign a little 
card away back in the back end of the building. I don't be- 
lieve any man can sign himself into the kingdom of Heaven. 
Neighbor, if you want religion, repent and clean up; and be 
man enough to let God, humanity, and the Devil know where 
you stand. 

How long do you think it is safe for the leper to knowingly 
permit the ravages of the disease to continue and fail to ask for 
medical help? How long do you suppose it is safe for the 
moral leper to suffer the depletion of moral resistance until his 
entire moral nature has become anesthetic or insensible to any 
divine approach or tender appeal? 

Some years ago, in London, a man was giving an exhibition 
on the stage; he was a snake-trainer. He had taken a boa- 
constrictor when it was very small and trained it to do many 
interesting tricks. It had grown to be a huge monster. Usual- 
ly the climax of the evening was for this serpent to wind itself 
around the man's body and point its head out toward the 
crowd. One night the snake had faithfully done its part. 
There seemed, however, at the last moment a spirit of resistance 
on the part of the serpent to continue the performance. The 
trainer spoke the word and commanded immediate obedience; 
the last act was to be performed. The serpent wound itself 



1 72 CAIN'S WIFE. 

around the body of the man, fold after fold, until his body was 
practically covered. The head of the serpent seemed to move 
about while its eyes flashed fire and its tongue darted from its 
open mouth. The people began to cheer; then they heard a 
shriek, and then followed the breaking of bones, and they looked 
upon the terrible spectacle of the bruised mass of human flesh 
which fell limp when the serpent released its grip upon the body. 
Every bone was broken ; he had been instantly killed. There 
were years represented during the lime he had absolute control 
over the serpent. He could have killed it two minutes before 
it killed him. That story presents the etiology — the evident 
causation — of the final and absolute death of the sinner who 
aliows moral leprosy to wrap itself about him until at last it 
breaks every bone of resistance in the moral skeleton. 

Yean ago, in the mountains of West Virginia, in the coal 
district, an engineer had pulled his train of empty coal cars up 
the mountain to the loading station. The limit, I believe, was 
eight full cars on the return trip. When the eight cars had 
been filled, a bantering brakeman said to the engineer: "Bill, 
let 's put on another." The engineer remonstrated; he called 
attention to the rules governing the number of loaded cars per 
trip. The brakeman said: "Oh! don't be a coward, Bill; 
we can make it." Another car-load was added, and another, 
and another. Finally the engineer said he would not start with 
the load if another car was placed in that train. The brake- 
man climbed into the last coal-car and the engine began draw- 
ing the train down the canyon. They had probably gone two 
miles on the descent when the heavy load became too much 
for the engine and the engineer was conscious that the train was 
running away with him. He applied the air, he did every- 
thing, but he found himself absolutely powerless to save the 
train. There was a sharp curve just above the town. The 
people of the village heard the train thundering down the can- 
yon. The wife of the engineer looked out from her home as 



CAIN'S WIFE. 173 

she heard the terrible roar of the runaway train. She saw the 
train reach the canyon. Bill, her husband, had often waved 
his handkerchief and thrown a kiss as he had reached that place. 
As she looked she was transfixed with horror; she saw Bill's 
engine and the cars loaded with coal turn end over end in the 
canyon until they disappeared from sight and there was a terri- 
ble crash. The woman screamed, "My God, it 's my Bill!" 
They found him mangled and dead; he had let them put too 
much of a load on his engine. Moral leper, you are daily 
adding to your eternal load, to the weight of your eternal sor- 
row. In God's name, repent. 



174 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter XIV. 

SEVEN DEVILS. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

Text: "Now when Jesus was risen early the first of the 
Sabbaths, He appeared first to Man' Magdalene, out of whom 
He had cast seven devils." — Marf( 1 6:9. 

Perhaps there are people in this audience who doubt the 
divine origin and integrity of the Scriptures. The Bible deals 
with realities; it b therefore the DooI( of all books for the hu- 
man family. It explains life, death, victory, defeat, Heaven, 
and Hell. You are here to-night because the Bible is true. 
This book tells us of God. truth, purity, love; it tells us of the 
Devil, impurity, falsehood, dishonor, degradation, and death. 
While the existence of the Devil is questioned by people who 
are under his dominion, it is in no wise questioned by the people 
whom God has delivered from his dominion. The Bible tells 
us plainly that the Devil is still doing business at the old stand. 
The phenomenal power of organized evil indicates the existence 
of a throne occupied by Diabolis, the Devil, Satan, Apollyon, 
or whatever you care to call him ; that he rules and commissions 
demons, evil spirits, and fallen angels, there is no question. The 
failure of psycho-physiologists to master certain forms of nervous 
disorders when the physical man shows no perceptible weakness 
or organic difficulty, when there seems in the soul of the person 
a phobophobia — a fear of fear — the condition which was so 
frequently met by the Saviour when He cast out demons and 
devils from those possessed, is likewise met by the specialists of 
our time, %vho find suggestive therapeutics and all scientific lore 
utterly impotent in the face of these paralyzing conditions. 



CAIN'S WIFE. i 75 

They discover that in some comer of the soul there exists a weak- 
ness, a rebellious defect, against which reason and successful 
medical methods are absolutely powerless; while specialists pon- 
der over the mental and moral stigmata which indicate weak- 
ness and diagnose psychasthenia as congenital, by virtue of that 
heredity which outlines the characteristics of the brain. Jesus 
met every condition, every malleable deformity, acquired psy- 
cho-neuroses, corrupt emotions, traumatisms, and all soul-deteri- 
oration, with one irrevocable command, "Come out of him." 
The people who were devil-possessed were sometimes blind and 
dumb. In Matthew 12:22 this case is cited: "Then was 
brought unto Him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, 
and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both 
spake and saw." The admitted failure of the best physicians 
of the twentieth century to make headway in their attempted 
cures with certain subjects is simply an evidence of the exist- 
ence of a power within the patient which only responds to a 
higher power than the authority of man. Pharaoh said to 
Moses: "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." 
The Devil says to the psycho-neuropath: "Doctor, I know not 
your authority, neither will I let this subject go." The shallow 
sceptic may laugh at this old-time theology ; the modern preach- 
er may turn up his nose — if the Lord did not spare him the 
trouble when He made his proboscis; but the record of the 
Apostles, as well as the record of Jesus Christ, in dealing with 
the demented, hypochondriac, maniac, epileptic, and others 
whose mental and physical condition evidenced a deep-seated 
slavery and bondage to devilish power, making it impossible for 
an ordinary physician who employed psychic methods or the nos- 
trums of materia medica to effect a cure, indicates the employ- 
ment of divine power in effecting the cure. The secret of 
power is thus given: "And God wrought special miracles by 
the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto the 
handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases disappeared from 



176 CAIN'S WIFE. 

them and the evil spirits went out of them." (Acts 19:11-12.) 
The Devil was unable to resist the power of the Holy Spirit 
when the name of Jesus was used. He did resist some un- 
authorized attempts at healing in Paul's time, the same as he 
does in our time, and with an equal amount of success. The 
record is as follows: "Then certain of the vagabond Jews, 
exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spir- 
its the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus 
whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one 
Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the 
evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; 
but who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit 
was leaped on them, and prevailed against them, so that they 
fled out of that house naked and wounded." (Acts 19:13- 
16.) I believe a great percentage of the insanity of this cent- 
ury is simply the result of the overwhelming power of the Devil 
in the life, effecting by vague fears, hallucinations, auto-sug- 
gestions and hctero-suggestions, the mentality and the morale of 
the subject. Jesus met a man in the country of the Gadarenes 
who was possessed with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling 
among the tombs, and no man could bind him — no, not with 
chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and 
chains and the chains had been broken asunder by him and the 
fetters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him, and 
always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs, 
crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw 
Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud 
voice and said: "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son 
of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment 
me not." For He said unto him, "Come out of the man, thou 
unclean spirit," and He asked him, "What is thy name?" and 
he answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many." The in- 
telligence of the devil is indicated because he knew there was a 
great herd of swine close at hand and he asked permission for 



CAIN'S WIFE. 177 

the legion to enter the herd of swine. Some people consider 
this a very strange request, but I believe if I were a devil, I 
would rather live in a decent hog than some men I know. The 
people came finally to see the one who was possessed of the 
devils and had the legion; they found him sitting and clothed 
and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Jesus told the 
man to go home and tell his folks what great things the Lord 
had done for him. Here is an indication that the power of the 
Devil made a man a raving maniac, violent, vicious, and bent 
on self-torture, because he was possessed with many devils. 
Mary Magdalene had seven devils. Jesus evidently counted 
them, because He cast them out. It is my expectation in this 
discourse to analyze the character of the woman in the light of 
the fact that she was possessed of seven devils ; therefore it be- 
comes necessary to classify these devils. They certainly were 
not all the same kind. According to history, she was pos- 
sessed by 

( 1 ) A Devil of Lust. 

Tradition tells us of the ruination of Mary Magdalene by 
a certain prince; there may be actual truth in the statement. 
Her phenomenal beauty of face and symmetry of form have 
always actuated the efforts of great artists in portraying their 
conception of her physical life. We do not need to go back 
nineteen hundred years to find the sorrow which is brought into 
the human heart by the devil of lust. I have seen sweet-faced, 
sad-eyed girls all over this country and in other countries, who 
evidenced the terrors of impending disaster, disgrace, because 
of the power of lust. I was conducting a meeting in a town in 
Iowa some years ago, a town which boasts its State Normal 
School, and talks a great deal about culture, which is, however, 
as corrupt and debauched under cover as the slum districts of 
Chicago and New York. A woman in that community was in 
the meeting ; she told me, when I asked her to become a Chris- 



i78 CAIN'S WIFE. 

tian, that she couldn't live a religious life in her home. I asked 
her the reason. She said she despised her husband. I said : 
"There must be a cause for this condition of heart. Did you 
ever love him?" She said she thought she loved him before 
she married him. Then I answered: "You probably were 
compelled to marry him, or he was compelled to marry you." 
She admitted the fact that he had ruined her; then she added 
that she was in love with another man and was very anxious for 
her husband to die. I said: "Madam, you do not know the 
first principles of love. The actuating principle of your affairs 
of heart is lust, and not love." Physical passion is the basis of 
the ruination of virtue, honor, and happiness in the home-life. 
If the devil of lust overwhelms you, call upon the Master 
Healer; Jesus can cast him out. 

In the second place, I think Mary must have had 

(2) A Devil in the Temper. 

This psychic weakness is the result of serious lesions in 
the moral fabric. The explosive temper, the petulant woman, 
the quarrelsome man, the fussy child — who has not met these 
pests inhuman experience? The church is disrupted, the home 
made unhappy, the heart sad, the presence of the possessor of 
the devil of a bad temper a bore and a dread. This condition 
can be overcome by the grace of God and by the exercise of 
the psychic principle of auto-suggestion. People who carry their 
feelings on their sleeve are apt to get them scratched. Some 
time ago an old negro woman called on her pastor with the sor- 
rowful tale of marital infelicity. She said: "My husban' 
cusses me, fights me, takes de money dat I makes washin' ; he 
am too shifflus to work, and he am too mean to pray." The 
old pastor said, soothingly: "Sistah, dispurgate dis lakrymose 
circumnabigation. (Laughter.) In udder words, dry yo' tears. 
Has you eber tried de Scriptural injunction, heaping coals ob 
fiah on his head?" The old woman answered: "No, Brudder 



CAIN'S WIFE. 179 

Johnsing, I has neber tried coals ob fiah; but I has tried hot 
watahon him." (Laughter.) This is the spirit of discontent 
and household tempests all over the country. A devil of a bad 
temper is a liability and never an asset. The business man 
knows the advantage of cultivating an equilibrium in disposition 
and general demeanor. 

Who has not entered the home presided over by a lady 
whose voice was soothing, whose bearing instantly set one at 
ease, whose manner was utterly devoid of affectation, whose 
presence was really comforting, whose soul power was so evi- 
dently superlative that you were instantly compelled and im- 
pelled by auto-suggestion to evidence the best within you. These 
rare spirits are invariably termed "natural born leaders." 
Such grace and womanly charm is priceless. Self-control has 
long been a reality where such social genius is exerted. The 
bad temper is the outer expression of inner selfishness. You 
frequently find a half-brother to a Daroc-Jersey hog spread out 
over a couple or three seats in a street-car or a passenger coach, 
while his ticket only indicates permission to ride in one seat. A 
Hebrew commercial traveler entered a train some time ago. 
The only available seat was partially covered by a number four- 
teen shoe, and the Jew stood looking covetously at the seat. 
The burly occupant — rather, the owner of the foot — glared at 
him and said: "Well, don't eat me up." The Jew replied: 
"I am a Hebrew and my religion forbids eating meat of your 
sort. The hog is pronounced unclean by Jehovah, whom I 
worship." (Laughter and applause.) Authority on the part of 
a cheap employee is often evidenced as an illustration of this 
demoniacal condition of soul. Most every traveler has found 
a crabbed clerk at the ticket office who probably draws $8 or 
$1 a week, or a lazy porter on a train who would allow a frail 
woman to tussle wearily with her heavy hand-baggage, while 
he growls at her slow progress in leaving the train. The gro- 
cery clerk, the dry goods clerk, the drug clerk, the telephone 



i8o CAIN'S WIFE. 

girl, the cab-driver, the farmer, and the messenger boy, the 
laborer in any sphere of life, can increase his or her value to the 
firm by manifesting a kindness to all and a consideration for the 
feelings of all with whom they come in contact. 
In the third place, Mary doubtless had 

(3) A Devil in the Tongue. 

Sam Jones said many witty things. He once described 
the gossipy woman as follows: "The old gal can sit in the 
parlor and lick a skillet in the kitchen." (Laughter.) That 
indicates the possession of a lengthy tongue. It is an unfortu- 
nate possession when there is a vacant spot just behind the eye- 
balls. (Applause.) And if there is any tiresome thing on 
earth, it is to hear a continual clatter of words which have abso- 
lutely no sense, purpose, or meaning attached to them. Job, I 
believe, discovered in his day people who darkened counsel with 
words. There is such a thing as an art in directing the conver- 
sation in the parlor, library, dining-room, or upon the veranda, 
the yacht, in the automobile, or the carriage. I sat at a table 
in a Western State once, when a black-wbiskered Hill-billy 
persisted in describing in detail the frightful hemorrhages of a 
friend who was dying of tuberculosis. There were several un- 
successful attempts, on the part of people who were inclined to 
nausea when unpleasant subjects were broached, to change the 
theme of the guest ; but they were of no avail. I felt my splen- 
did appetite leave me. I am sure I was pale. I was almost a 
consumptive by the time I finished that meal. The tongue 
should be used to describe salubrious and inspiring scenes. The 
digestion can be materially aided when intelligence guides the 
conversation at the table to wholesome subjects. The useless- 
ness of tiresome chatter should be impressed upon children in 
every school-room and in every home. I heard some time ago 
of a minister who was called to preach a funeral sermon. He 
was talking to the bereaved son and asked the boy to kindly 



CAIN'S WIFE. 181 

state the last words of his father. The boy replied: "He 
didn't have no last words." The minister asked the question, 
"Was he conscious at the end?" "Oh, yes, perfectly con- 
scious," replied the boy. "Then how does it happen that there 
were no last words?" The boy replied: " 'Cause ma was 
with him to the end." (Laughter.) Victor Hugo said a great 
thing when he said in "Les Miserables," "There are many 
tongues to talk and few heads to think." Silence is golden. 
The parrot-like chatter is an evidence of brass or a superfluity 
of gall. Talk about trust magnates and monopolists, the great- 
est bore along that line on earth is the empty-headed cuss who 
monopolizes the conversation of an evening — who circumnavi- 
gates a world of ideas, but, unfortunately, he has utilized aerial 
navigation and has passed serenely over the tops of all apparent 
ideas. (Applause.) 

In the fourth place, I presume Mary was possessed of 

(4) A Devil of Lying. 

An impure woman will lie as naturally as she will breathe. 
I was in a city in Ohio some years ago, when a young woman 
came to me, weeping, and asked me if a church member should 
be worse than a common sinner. I told her that was not ac- 
cording to the plan God had mapped out for church members. 
She said she had been worse since she joined the Church than 
she was before. I replied: "That is not the Church's fault. 
What do you mean by that admission?" She answered: "I 
mean, I am living a wicked life. Dr. M. began to treat my 
mother some months before her death, and he has promised to 
marry me, and I am now on the way to maternity on his ac- 
count, and I don't know what to do about it." I said: "I 
will make some investigations." I did so, and found the physi- 
cian named to have the reputation of drunkenness and licentious- 
ness in the community. The following Sunday night I lectured 
to four thousand men, and I made this statement: "A young 



182 CAIN'S WIFE. 

woman came to me recently, charging a certain doctor with hav- 
ing accomplished her ruin, and said she was two months on her 
maternity. The doctor is a member of the Church ; but, gentle- 
men, hear me, if he is guilty of that act, the rotten old scoundrel 
ought to be kicked out of the Church inside of forty-eight hours, 
and that Church is the Methodist Church." The adulterous 
young woman denied that she had made the charge to me, and 
the adulterous doctor sued me for $10,000 damages. Fortu- 
nately for myself, two young women were sitting on the plat- 
form and heard the conversation. I have been waiting for the 
summons from the Federal court into which I threw the case. 
The summons has not been forthcoming. I say again, a licen- 
tious woman or a licentious man will lie as naturally as they 
breathe. Some time ago a boy was asked in Sunday-school to 
give a definition of a lie. He replied : "It is an abomination 
unto the Lord, and a very present help in time of need." 
(Laughter.) There are any amount of old folks in business, 
social, and professional life, who take the boy's definition as 
their rule of faith and practice. When the children hear the 

mother complain because Mrs. J is approaching; when 

they hear the mother say, "I wish that old bothersome vixen 
would stay away from here and give me a rest," and then hear 

the mother as she opens the door, gushing: "Why, Mrs. J , 

you sweet thing! why on earth have you stayed away so long? 
It has surely been a week since you called. I was just talking 
to the children about you. For goodness sake, don't wait for 
me to come over — come any time, day or night — you know I 

am just delighted to see you." At last, Mrs. J leaves. 

When the door is shut and her last step is heard on the porch, 
the mother falls into a big fat leather chair with a sigh of relief 
and exclaims: "Has she really gone? I think that woman will 
drive me crazy." Then when the children begin to lie to music, 
the mother wrings her hands and wonders: "Where in the 
world did those little brats learn to lie?" You go to the look- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 183 

ing-glass, sister, and you will discover the cause of the lying on 
the part of your children. Lying has become part of the stock 
in trade of the commercial world, the social world, and the 
average politician is the bell-wether of the flock of liars. I 
heard of a Jew who was trying to teach his boy the up-to-date 
methods of business, and he said: "Ikey, you don't use enough 
color in your descriptions and your dealings with the customers." 
He said, continuing: "Here is Mrs. Goldbricks; now vatch 
your f adder." The boy stayed close and heard the woman call 
for silk dress goods. Many bolts were placed on the counter. 
She asked the price of a certain pattern. The Jew placed his 
nose-glasses in a dignified manner upon his prodigious nose, and 
said slowly: "Madam, this silk is-worth four dollars a yard." 
The woman said: "Good gracious! I never paid over two 
dollars for the same silk before." The Jew was not at all dis- 
concerted; he replied calmly: "Very well, madam, I do not 
vunder; but have you not heard the latest news?" The woman 
replied: "I certainly have not." He added reassuredly this 
information: "We have just had a message from the East and 
there has been a great frost and all the silk vurrums are frozen." 
The woman replied: "Flease cut me off twenty yards at once." 
He added: "This silk will be five dollars a yard inside of a 
week." She returned home, telling her husband that she had 
certainly gotten a bargain in silk. In the afternoon a lady and 
Ikey went up to wait on her. The lady called for some silk 
tape. Ikey rolled out certain specimens of the best tape in 
stock, and the woman said: "How much is this tape a yard?" 
He replied: "A dollar and a quarter." She said: "Impossi- 
ble! I have never paid over fifty cents before." Ikey said: 
"Well, have you not heard the news?" She said: "What 
news?" "There has been a great frost," he replied, "and all 
the tape vurrums are frozen." (Laughter and applause.) 
Twentieth century business methods may nickel-plate this di«- 



1 84 . CAIN'S WIFE. 

honesty, but God Almighty will bring you to judgment if you 
are lying to your customers. 

In the fifth place, Mary Magdalene was possessed of 

(5) A Devil of Doubt. 

Philosophically speaking, doubt is the basis of superstition. 
Ofttimes the doubter, with superb scorn playing upon his feat- 
ures, speaks of religious people as superstitious. Pessimism, 
superstition, cowardice, failure, defeat are psychologically, phys- 
iologically, and irrevocably related to all forms of infidelity. 
The man who persistently doubts God, the Bible, the deity of 
Jesus Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, the existence of 
Heaven and Hell, loses his power to believe, his faith faculty 
has atrophied. The Devil rebelled against God and disobeyed 
Him. God made the Devil's sjn his punishment. He made 
the sin of every fallen angel and foul spirit their punishment. 
While they would repent if it were possible, they can not repent. 
While they would believe, they can approach no nearer the 
province of salvation than mental assent to the existence of God, 
the divine origin of the Bible, the deity of Jesus Christ, the ex- 
istence of Hell, and the reality of Heaven. The Apostle 
James makes it clear: "The devils believe and tremble." The 
infidel, agnostic, atheist, materialist, Universalist, Unitarian, 
Spiritualist, Christian Scientist, Theosophist, and all others 
overwhelmed with a delusion, will find in Hell their sin to have 
become their punishment. I reckon the Devil will have old 
Mrs. Eddy give numerous addresses to the false religionists in 
perdition. She will arise and say: "My children, good is gain; 
and gain is boot; boot is benefit; benefit is improvement; im- 
provement is profit ; profit is weal ; weal is boon ; boon is nuts ; 
nuts is treasure trove ; treasure trove is a wind-fall ; a wind-fall 
is goodness; goodness is happiness; happiness is main chance; 
main chance is utility ; utility is beneficial ; anything beneficial is 
commendable; anything commendable is useful; all is for the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 185 

best; the best is all right; and anything all right is not amiss; 
and whatever is not amiss is satisfactory; whatever is satisfac- 
tory is to one's advantage ; my friends, the magnum bonum of 
life is paragonic; and that which is paragonic is seraphic; the 
seraph is a winner ; the winner is a diamond in the rough ; and 
this brings me to the doctrine of supereminence or superexcel- 
lence, par excellence, a la mode; and to possess this exquisitely 
superb superabundance of good is, in the language of the poet, 
worth a Jew's eye." She is seated while the assembled multi- 
tudes give unanimous applause. 

In the sixth place, Mary was possessed of the 

(6) Devil of Hypocrisy. 

She doubtless would have resented any insinuation as to 
her purity or excellence of morality. In lecturing to men and 
women in great campaigns, when I touch upon the social evil 
and discuss the attendant diseases, I am often amused to hear 
that Mrs. So-and-So was dreadfully shocked, or Mr. So-and-So 
pronounced the lecture a terrible thing. Upon investigation, I 
discover Mrs. So-and-So to be living an impure life, or else she 
has made an unsuccessful attempt to have a decent physician 
perform various abortions, and the man who objects to the plain 
wording is invariably a reprobate and a rascal. There is too 
much mock modesty in the world. The shallow hypocrite will 
pretend to be shocked when sin is denounced or exposed, but 
they will revel in secret sins which tear down the structure of 
integrity and purity, or they will commit acts which are crim- 
inal in the sight of God and common decency. I presume you 
have heard of the woman who was so modest that when her 
husband purchased a grand piano, she made trousers for the 
legs of the same. (Laughter and applause.) That is "going 
some" for modesty. (Laughter.) The devil of hypocrisy 
finds a ready response in the human family. Before his magic 
wand preachers and laymen grovel in the dust; sometimes it is 



1 86 CAIN'S WIFE. 

gold-dust, and they stand socially pre-eminent ariH intact be- 
cause they have a pull. There is in history an interesting evi- 
dence of the audacity of a cunning hypocrite. When King 
Cyrus died, his son Cambyses took the throne. He was very 
jealous of his most excellent brother, Smerdis. Smerdis was 
popular with the people. Cambyses, lamenting the rising popu- 
larity of Smerdis, had him assassinated in Egypt. He sent 
word to a priest named Smerdis to take the reins of the govern- 
ment until he returned. Cambyses, however, was slain and 
never returned. The hypocritical priest withheld the news of 
the assassination of Smerdis, the brother of the king whose death 
he announced, and proclaimed himself Smerdis the ruler. Of 
course things went smoothly for a while. It was noticed that 
he appeared very little in public. This was so extremely dif- 
ferent from the actions of their beloved Smerdis that the people 
began to be suspicious. The wife of the original Smerdis was 
finally permitted to go to her presumable husband. Her father, 
a prominent statesman, told her of his suspicions. Pretended 
grief on the part of the impostor had withheld the wife of Smer- 
dis from his presence. Her father said: "I believe Smerdis 
the priest is making a pretense. When he enters your bedroom, 
in some way or other find out if he has any ears. If he has no 
ears, he is the priest Smerdis, and a base pretender. If he has 
ears, he is your husband." When Smerdis entered and em* 
braced the wife of the Smerdis who had been killed in Egypt, 
she tenderly patted his head and discovered that he was without 
ears. He was immediately executed. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde spirit in any church member is reprehensible. The meek- 
ness of Uriah Heep can be discovered in the life of the hypo- 
crite of the first water. 

In the seventh place, Mary probably was under the do- 
minion of 



CAIN'S WIFE. 187 

(7) The Devil of Formality. 

When people lose spiritual power, they try to make up in 
formality a sufficient showing to blind the eyes of people who 
expect much of them. The rut into which the formal church 
member and formal church have fallen is so deep that the world 
passes on unmindful of the existence of these shallow religionists 
who make a noise like sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal, but 
never indicate the spirit of worship. "Where the spirit of the 
Lord is, there is liberty." During the gold excitement in Aus- 
tralia a miner had struck it rich and had filled several belts with 
gold-dust and nuggets. He had taken passage to one of the 
islands some distance away. When they neared the coast, the 
vessel was wrecked ; they were perhaps a mile from shore and 
the boat was going to pieces on the rocks. He had placed life- 
preservers about himself and, being a powerful swimmer, he ful- 
ly expected to make it to land and save his gold. When he was 
about to take the plunge into the water, a sweet-faced little girl, 
about seven years old, ran to him and said: "Mister, can you 
swim?" He answered: "I certainly can, and I expect to be- 
gin pretty soon." The little girl said: "Please, mister, I 
want you to save me. My father and mother I think are 
drowned." The man looked at the child and he felt the belts 
of gold about him. He was called upon to make a choice; 
he knew well enough it was impossible to carry the gold and the 
child. He looked into the depths of her big, wondering eyes, 
and he finally unbuckled the belts and hurled them into the 
water, and he said to the child: "Put your arms around my 
neck. I will tie this cord around your body and mine. Hold 
tight. Breathe through your nose." And he sprang into the 
water. Finally, after a heavy struggle, a great wave hurled 
him high up onto the beach. The exertion had been too much 
for him, and he fainted. When he regained consciousness, the 
little girl had untied the cord and was sitting by him, rubbing 
his face with her soft hands, and tears were running down her 



1 88 CAIN'S WIFE. 

cheeks. When she saw his eyes open, she smiled and kissed 
him, and sard: "Mister, I am so glad you saved me." The 
old hardened miner in relating the incident said he would rather 
have had the kiss of that little girl whose life he had saved than 
all the gold of Australia. Away with your baggage of formal- 
ity, and out to the rescue of the lost 



CAIN'S WIFE. 189 

Chapter XV. 

COMPROMISE NEVER! 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Olher. 

My text to-night is found in the book of First Samuel, the 
fifteenth chapter, the thirty-third verse: "And Samuel hewed 
Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal." 

The history of the rise and fall of Saul, the son of Kish, is 
one of the most interesting of all the Old Testament sketches. 
From the time he went out to search for the lost stock until he 
was anointed by the prophet Samuel, and began to prophesy 
amongst the prophets, much to the amazement of his friends and 
relatives, interest in him grows. At last he became king. He 
was a magnificent-looking man, standing head and shoulders 
above the rest of his countrymen. When you contrast some 
people who have a bodily blemish, called "Shut-ins," who are 
some of the sweetest, noblest Christian spirits in all the world, 
with the people whose bodies are strong and vigorous, almost a 
sculptor's dream in point of perfection, but who have the soul 
blight within them which makes them slaves to lust, liquor, and 
wickedness, you decide, if you are a true man or a true woman, 
that it is much better to have a clean heart and a right spirit 
than physical perfection. 

God gave an order to Saul, for He was commander-in- 
chief of the armies of Israel at that time. The order was: 
"Smite Amalek, utterly destroy them, spare them not." The 
Amalekites were a source of continual grief and vexation to the 
children of Israel ; therefore when God ordered Saul to lead in 
their utter extermination, He was giving him the method of 
future victory. I believe it typifies the demand of God, which 



190 CAIN'S WIFE. 

means death to the old life, death to sin, death to compromise, 
death to cowardice ; and to-night I declare in the name of Jesus 
Christ, the Captain of our salvation, that the fight is on and we 
are not here in this campaign to sacrifice the holy standard of 
righteousness, for policy's sake ! 

When the battle was over and Saul had spared the best 
sheep, the prophet Samuel said to him: "Why didn't you 
destroy the sheep?" Saul replied: "I wanted to present a 
sacrifice." The wise old prophet replied: "It is better to 
obey than to sacrifice." And Saul answered: "I would have 
obeyed, but I feared the people." When Samuel looked 
around, he found that Saul had brought Agag, the king of the 
Amalekites, back with him as a prisoner of war. He had been 
the source of the trouble. Samuel was so indignant that he 
drew his sword and hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord. 
My brethren, I believe there are preachers in Hell who failed 
to hew Agag to pieces because they feared the people. When 
some rich old rascal, by manipulating stock (watered stock, I 
mean) , has brought into the treasury of the church thousands of 
dollars, or he has dumped millions into some denominational in- 
stitution, which is a hot-bed of infidelity, as a sacrifice, preach- 
ers and people have apparently been willing to give some of 
these rich old curmudgeons a man-made passport into Heaven ; 
but God does not recognize any such passports. If there is one 
place higher in this world than others, it is the pulpit, and I be- 
lieve the man who stands behind the pulpit as God's minister 
should be a man of absolute integrity, intrepidity, and courage 1 
(Applause.) 

Some years ago I was asked by the wife of Sam P. Jones, 
the great Georgia preacher and reformer, to deliver an oration 
at the State Capitol building in Atlanta over the remains of her 
beloved husband. I paid tribute in that address not only to the 
character of Sam P. Jones, but I stated my ideas of an ideal 
preacher of the gospel. That short address was heard by 



CAIN'S WIFE. 191 

thousands of people. I said: "Rev. Sam P. Jones was the 
greatest admixture of contrasts ever combined in one human be- 
ing, so far as my reading, observation, and personal acquaint- 
ance can gauge. He had the dauntless courage of a thousand 
brave men, and the sympathy and tenderness of the sweetest 
woman. He was the diagnostician, studying the pathology of 
the pandemics, endemics, and epidemics of mankind, morally 
and spiritually. He was the surgeon, driving the scalpel through 
the diseased parts, causing excruciating pain to the one in whom 
he drove the instrument. But he was in the next moment the 
soft-handed, sweet-voiced nurse, administering the balms and 
tonics to the suffering one. He was the whole fearless regiment, 
sweeping across the battlefield with cyclonic fury, leaving the 
field strewn with the wounded and dying ; then he was the whole 
Red Cross Society, following in the wake of the caustic cata- 
clysm, bringing the comfort of a thousand loves into the aching 
hearts! Brother Jones never gave a thorn v/ithout a rose; he 
never gave honeycomb without the honey. He never hurt a 
man in this world in his great ministerial career, but for the pur- 
pose of tearing off the mask and allowing the man to see him- 
self. To him the pulpit was no gilded prison-cell in which to 
palaver, palliate, or pander ; he had no fear of poignant perse- 
cution, no bow to make before a reprobate taskmaster ruling a 
degenerated company of pulpit puppets with a rod of gold. 
While some preachers dealt in painted fire, Sam Jones dealt in 
real fire ; irrevocable convictions swept him into a relentless war- 
fare, where he did more to strengthen the backbone of the Amer- 
ican preachers than any man who has ever labored in this 
country. To him (as he once told me while I was a guest in 
his home) the pulpit was a throne, whereupon he was called to 
sway a scepter in righteousness, love, and fearlessness. He had 
the conviction that he was sent of God. I know he was. To 
this age, wherein cowardice, superficiality, poltroonism, policy- 
seeking, infidelity, and graft surged like billows over the relig- 



192 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ious as well as the political life of our nation, he was as truly 
God's prophet, saying, "Thou art the man," as was Nathan in 
his day. His strength can only be measured by the burdens 
he bore ; the cross he bore was heavy. He suffered pangs which 
would have made a giant crouch and cower like a belabored 
hound, yet he bore them as a prince. I know how mellow his 
great heart was. I have prayed and wept with him in his own 
home, where the evidences of weakness or strength in a man 
are exhibited. He fought a good fight; he finished his 
course. To-day he is wearing the crown which God gave him 
when He lifted the cross from his tired shoulders. The in- 
trepid warrior has fought his last battle ; he has met the Father 
and the Son ; he may be talking with Abraham, or Daniel, or 
Paul, or John. He has kissed his old mother and grasped his 
father's hand ; the little babe which went home before him has 
welcomed him into Heaven. Let an object pass one inch earth- 
ward or skyward at the point of equipoise, and earth's or sun's 
attraction will draw it instantly. Brother Jones reached that 
point of spiritual equipoise between earth and Heaven, and 
Heaven's attraction drew him home to God for eternity." 

Not more than five minutes after I concluded my tribute 
to Sam Jones, as I stood by the side of his coffin, which was 
located just under the dome in the State Capitol building, where 
the bodies of Senators Toombs, Stevens, and the eloquent Henry 
Grady, and other stalwart sons of Georgia had lain in years be- 
fore, an old gray-haired mother in Israel came up to look upon 
the cold face in the coffin. She stood a moment and said, 
"O God, I can't stand this!" and turned around and started 
through the surging crowd and fell dead within twenty feet of 
the coffin. Thirty thousand people filed past in solemn pro- 
cession to pay tribute to their respect and love for the much- 
misunderstood and maligned Sam Jones. 

Brethren of the ministry, the people appreciate courage 
on the part of the preachers. Let us fight the good fight 



CAIN'S WIFE. 193 

of faith. Neighbor, is there an Agag in your life? Pas- 
tor, is there an Agag in your church? Father, is there 
an Agag in your home? Mother, is there an Agag in the 
social alliances of your circle? If so, in the name of God 
and righteouness, hew him in pieces before the Lord in this mod- 
ern Gilgal. Saul failed to hew Agag to pieces with the whole 
army at his back. The prophet Samuel did it single-handed 
and alone. The wise man has said : "The wicked flee when 
no man pursueth." Dr. Parkhurst added: "But they run a 
great deal faster when somebody is after them." The Apostle 
Paul, in his inspired epistle, says: "Endure hardness as a 
good soldier of Jesus Christ." I believe it is time for the 
Church of God in America to declare war on the Devil and his 
hosts. I mean a warfare in the spiritual sense, and not in tha 
carnal sense ; a warfare which is the result of purity, prayerf ul- 
ness, consecration, and courage. The power of the Church of 
Jesus Christ is phenomenal, when they walk in white garments 
in close fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. 

Some years ago, in the South, a bare-footed negro was run- 
ning down the road as fast as he could travel, when a white man 
who sat on the veranda of his country home called out: "Mose, 
what are you running for?" The old negro never stopped. 
He said: "Cunnel, I isn't a-runnin' fur, I 's a-runnin' from." 
There are any amount of church members who are not running 
after the Devil, chasing him from the home circle, or the business 
houses, or the church, or the town; but they are running from 
him like contemptible cowards. God Almighty has said: 
"Submit yourselves therefore unto God; resist the Devil, and he 
will flee from you." i 

I believe the politicians of the nation should hew Agag to 
pieces. The average politician is a miserable coward in the 
moral sense of the term. Some time ago, when I was to lecture 
at a certain Chautauqua, I felt impressed to discuss the political 
conditions and I took out my check-book and wrote the follow- 



194 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ing poem in it. A poem is about the only thing I can write in 
my check-book: 

"His Honor" lies over the ocean, 

"His Honor" lies over the sea. 
He lies on every occasion, 

He 's a politician, you see. 

"His Honor" 's a real "trust-buster"; 

"His Honor" takes checks from them too; 
In fact, he 's a live mollycoddle, 

He '11 tell you the red-bird is blue. 

"His Honor" 's a real "conservative," 

"His Honor" 's a "radical" too. 
His tergiversations amaze you, 

He 's a mixture of gall and sinew. 

"His Honor" 's a "friend of the people," 

He sits in a curmudgeon's pew. 
He 's a double-barreled snolligoster; 

Of the Golden Rule he knows — "Do." 

There is not so much a need of new laws in our country 
as law-enforcement ; and I want to say at this point that when- 
ever you find in any State the prohibitory law shown no respect 
by jointists, bootleggers, whisky druggists, and other law-break- 
ers, you can count on it some man has taken the oath of office 
who has sold himself to the whisky gang. To make it clear, I 
will tell you a story. Some years ago a minister was walking 
down a street in a little town where a boy had a lemonade- 
stand in the corner of his yard. He had two jars of lemonade 
and two prices on the contents of the jars. On one jar a sign 
was placed which read: "Five Cents a Glass." The other 
jar had the sign reading: "Two Glasses for Five Cents." 
The minister being quite thirsty and as hard up as he was 
thirsty, ordered two glasses and drank them. He noticed when 
he had finished that the glasses were all the same size and the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 195 

lemonade looked just alike in the jars before him, so his curi- 
osity got the better of him and he said: "That lemonade 
tastes mighty good to me. I wish you would tell me why you 
sell this two glasses for a nickel, while you charge five cents a 
glass for the lemonade in that other jar." The little boy, with 
a very confidential air, remarked, pointing toward the jar from 
which he had taken the minister's lemonade: "Well, sir, it is 
'cause my puppy fell in this jar." (Laughter.) They tell 
me the minister left the lemonade in that end of the town. 
Whenever you find lawlessness predominating in any commun- 
ity, it is because a puppy has fallen into office. (Applause.) 
What you need here in this city is anti-puppy politics. I like 
to see an official in office like Hon. Joseph Folk, of Missouri, 
or Attorney-General Jackson, of the State of Kansas ; men who 
will enforce the law because they have given their oath of office 
and they have some respect for their oath. Politicians and 
voters, draw your swords and hew Agag to pieces. 

I want to say something in regard to the home-life. I 
believe the modern home can be a type of Heaven. I know 
the sweetest place this side of Heaven to me is my own home. 
There are too many parents who seem absolutely indifferent to 
the religious and moral welfare of their children. The Word 
of God says: "Bring up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old he will not depart therefrom." Strong moral 
and spiritual teaching in the home will develop stalwart man- 
hood and invincible womanhood. If there is anything on earth 
objectionable and to be guarded against, it is the foolishness and 
folly of mixing religions in the home circle. I do not believe a 
Catholic and a Protestant should marry unless they have mu- 
tually agreed to accept the same views religiously. I do not 
believe a Christian woman should marry a man who repudiates 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. If I could tell you half the stories 
I have been told by broken-hearted wives who have suffered 
worse than death because of the brutality, profanity, and ras- 



196 CAIN'S WIFE. 

cality of their godless husbands, the young woman who con- 
templates marriage would think a good many times before she 
takes the leap. The trouble is too many little frizzle-headed 
girls take the leap and then do the thinking afterward. You 
take as an example the experience of the daughter of that prom- 
inent, eloquent Western politician, who played the fool and 
married against her parents' wishes some years ago, who recent- 
ly was in the divorce courts asking for a release from the man 
she married. He was a perfect stranger and she knew abso- 
lutely nothing about his character or his life when she mar- 
ried him. That is a fair specimen of the folly of the inex- 
perienced girl who thinks because her physiological passions are 
aroused that she is in love. The newspapers gave it out that 
she threatened to elope if she were not permitted to marry in her 
home. If my daughter should ever threaten to elope because 
I repudiated the young man who seeks to lead her to the mar- 
riage altar, I will tell you what I would do, neighbor; I would 
place a milk poultice on her head and try to draw some brains 
into it; (Applause) and if necessary, there would be other 
things doing. A man who hasn't stamina enough to protect his 
ignorant daughter in a time like that should be rebuked by the 
parents of a community. The main trouble is the home train- 
ing, or rather, the lack of it. 

Too many people are loaded to scatter. In an intellectual 
sense they are like the old blunderbus used by the Puritan fore- 
fathers. I heard of a man some years ago who got up to testify 
in a prayer-meeting. He said that he would love to have the 
power of the Apostle Paul, "who made the dumb to see, the 
blind to hear, the deaf to speak; who cast out the dead and 
raised the Devil." The trouble was, the dunce just had it 
stated wrong. Too many fathers do the right thing occasion- 
ally, and the wrong thing most of the time. This thing of 
allowing a fourteen- to a twenty-year-old daughter to be chasing 
around at midnight or later on the ball-room floor, or taking the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 197 

long drives in narrow-gauged buggies, or having the kissing-bees 
in the little parties or in the parlors, which simply mounts to 
a sentimental debauch, is the cause of a lot of the grief and 
broken hearts and ruined characters in our country. Young 
women, I want your attention. The young man who is any ac- 
count, who will be true to you as a husband, does not want to 
lead a young woman to the marriage altar who has been pawed 
over by every Tom, Dick, and the Devil on the ball-room floor, 
who brings to the marriage altar a stock of reechy kisses and 
stale embraces. The young woman who persistently permits 
these familiarities on the part of the young men is immodest, to 
say the least, and probably worse, if you get down to business in 
describing the situation. 

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far 
above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in 
her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him 
good, and not evil, all the days of her life. She girdeth her 
loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms. She layeth her 
hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." In mod- 
ern English that would read: "She can play on the pianny and 
on the cook-stove also. She can play some of the master- 
pieces, and when she goes to the kitchen, she can get up a meal 
that will not throw a gripe into her husband when he partakes 
of it." "She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she 
reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the 
snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with 
double garments. Her husband is known in the gates when he 
sitteth among the elders of the land. Strength and honor are 
her clothing and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth 
her mouth with wisdom ; and in her tongue is the law of kind- 
ness. She Iooketh well to the ways of her household, and eat- 
eth not the bread of idleness." From the slouchy, untidy, 
lazy, contentious woman, good Lord, deliver us! "It is better 
to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry 



198 CAIN'S WIFE. 

woman." God says it is better to dwell in a corner of the house- 
top than with a brawling woman in a wide house. "As a jewel 
of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without 
discretion." God says: "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a 
good thing and shall obtain favor of the Lord." A true wom- 
an can do more to make life worth while than any creature God 
ever placed upon this earth. The seventh chapter of Proverbs, 
however, deals with the subtlety of the impure woman in leading 
the foolish young man into iniquity. The chapter closes with 
these very striking words: "Let not thine heart decline to her 
ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many 
wounded" (that means diseased ones), "yea, many strong men 
have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going 
down to the chambers of death." 

I heard Sam Jones make a statement a few days before he 
died, regarding the divorce business, which was interesting to 
me. He said: "Let them get divorces, make divorces cheap; 
let them get them for a dollar apiece, but send every lousy old 
devil to the penitentiary for life who gets one." That state- 
ment will do to think over. I have been told that it is impossi- 
ble to secure a divorce in the State of South Carolina. When 
a young woman talks about getting married, her parents take 
her to one side and say: "Daughter, this means a step for life, 
and we want you to be sure that the man is worthy of our 
precious daughter. We do not want you to make a mistake at 
the marriage altar, for if you do, it will mean a life-time of suf- 
fering." Brethren, I believe we ought to consider more and 
more the sacred ties of the home circle. Men and women are 
wasting their opportunities and throwing away their lives and 
their souls, and are dashing into hell. 

Many years ago a man is said to have taken passage on a 
vessel for some port in a far and sunny clime. He had bought 
a pearl of phenomenal beauty and extraordinary value. While 
walking on the deck of the ship one day, he say a boy carrying 



CAIN'S WIFE. 199 

some apples; he stopped him and began tossing some of the 
apples into the air and finally had six or eight apples moving all 
at the same time. Passengers gathered about him and cheered 
because of his skill. Being flattered by the applause of the 
people, he went to his state-room and removed the pearl from his 
jewel-box and carried it to the deck. Holding it in the sun- 
light, he explained that he was the proud possessor of the fabu- 
lous pearl. The people marveled at the beauty of that jewel. 
He said: "I am going to show you what confidence I have in 
my skill." Whereupon he leaned out over the side of the vessel 
and tossed the pearl into the air while the old ship sped on. The 
pearl at last descended, and he reached out and grasped it, and 
the people gave a vigorous round of applause. Leaning farther 
out over the side of the vessel, he tossed the pearl higher, and 
the multitude were almost breathless while they watched the 
pearl descending. Finally he reached out, with dexterity born 
of practice, and seemed to pluck the pearl from a silver string 
which swung from the dome of the heavens. Finally a nerv- 
ous passenger stepped up and said: "Please don't risk your 
pearl again. I can not bear to see such a risk. Take an ap- 
ple ; it will do just as well. Do not endanger your possessions 
by such folly." But the man said : "Just once more." And 
he leaned still farther over the side of the vessel and tossed the 
pearl high into the air. He was straining his eyes watching 
? the pearl; when finally he reached for the pearl, the old ship 
■ gave a lurch, and down into the fathomless depths, far from the 
sight of human eye, dashed that pearl of rare beauty and phe- 
nomenal value. The man turned and said: "Contemptible 
fool that I am! I have risked and lost my all simply for the 
plaudits of the careless crowd." There are multitudes in my 
hearing who have been tossing their immortal souls for years. 
You have tossed it for whisky ; you have tossed it for the dance, 
for the card-table, for the theater, for infidelity, for corrupt poli- 
tics, for pretences of sell -righteousness ; and some of these days 



200 CAIN'S WIFE. 

your frail boat will give a lurch and into the indescribable vor- 
tex of anguish will dash your soul for eternity. May God 
Almighty call you to repentance to-night. Arise, determine 
that you will hew Agag in pieces to-night! Have you the 
courage? Have you manhood enough? Have you woman- 
hood enough? You answer: "Yes, I have." Then come. 
The Lord will gladly welcome you. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 201 

Chapter XVI. 

THE DEVIL'S INCUBATORS. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

The Theater, the Card-Table, and the Dance. 

My text to-night is found in the Book of Revelation, the 
third chapter and twentieth verse: "Behold, I stand at the 
door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, 
I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." 

It seems strange even to sadness that these words could be 
directed to people who called themselves Christians, but such is 
the case. The people of the Church of Laodicea were grilled 
with a terrific arraignment. Jesus said: "I know thy works, 
that thou art neither cold nor hot ; I would thou wert cold or hot. 
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I 
will spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I have 
gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that 
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and 
naked." His sign and name they bore; they had the form of 
godliness, but they denied the power thereof ; they had admitted 
the restraining influences of the gospel ; they apparently accepted 
with mental assent all the doctrines of the Bible; the divinity of 
Christ ; the reality of Heaven and Hell ; but they found no spir- 
ituality in their riches and they found no salvation in their studies 
of ethics and sociology. They discovered that Jesus Christ 
demands something more than philanthropy. They probably 
had the veneer of the profession of Christianity, but they were 
in absolute spritual darkness. Christ was outside, knocking ; at 
their heart's door, pleading for entrance. 

I want to say to-night that it absolutely matters not what 



202 CAIN'S WIFE. 

form of amusement you follow, what religion you profess, what 
kind of a life you live, moral or immoral; if you reject Jesus 
Christ and keep Him out of your heart, you are doomed to 
spend eternity in Hell, and the fundamental argument of my 
lecture to-night is this fact. Anything that keeps you from 
accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour will damn your 
soul. What is it that keeps Jesus outside your heart to-night? 
Is it adultery, infidelity, profanity, lying, stealing, self-righteous- 
ness, Sunday base-ball, Sunday hunting, or Sunday automobile 
pleasure trips? 

The Theater. 

It may the love of the theater, it may be the love of the 
card-table, or it may be the love of the dance, the horse-race, 
the circus, or some false religion ; whatever it is, I am positive 
that you are keeping Jesus Christ out of your heart because you 
prefer to have some specific sin within your heart. The only 
bolt on the door of your heart is your will, and the knob is on 
the inside. Jesus Christ will not break the door down; He 
will not force an entrance. There are people in my hearing to- 
night who have treated Jesus Christ worse than they treat the 
tramps and hobos who knock at their back doors; when they 
knock at the door, you at least ask them what they want. Jesus 
Christ has been knocking at your heart's door for years, and any 
amount of you have kept the door fast closed, although you 
knew He stood without, knocking. He will not always knock. 
God said: "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." 
Jesus Christ knocked at the door of a home ; He would gladly 
have entered that home, but they had all planned to go to the 
theater that night ; they had no time for Jesus Christ ; and so the 
weary Saviour has walked the streets silently, weeping over the 
wickedness, the selfishness, the steel-cold indifference of lost men 
and women who seem to be satisfied in their hellward course. 

I have often been told by devotees of the theater, that the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 203 

theater is needed as an educator. I brand that statement as 
utterly false. The theater has never in its history stood as the 
educational center of any nation. You can take the history of 
the stage from the very dawn of history on through the con- 
temptible and devilish debauchery of Nero, who thought himself 
an actor of phenomenal power, and down through the ages to 
the time when the Church and the stage tried to mix oil and 
water in England, to the present time ; it has not stood and does 
not stand as an educational institution. In the first pice, an 
educator should have an education, and it is a matter of fact 
that the majority of the people of the stage are not scholars. 
In the second place, pure manhood or pure womanhood is the 
first consideration and qualification of an educator, and I want 
to say to you, not from guesswork or hearsay or with a desire to 
be unkind, that the people of the stage as a class are not of the 
best character. This can be easily proven. They are invaria- 
ble Sabbath-desecrators. Many of the convicts of the peni- 
tentiaries tell the workers that their first step toward a life of 
crime was disregard for the Sabbath day. The Sunday theater 
is one of the rottenest institutions this side of Hell; it is doing 
more to paralyze morals and debauch all classes of people in the 
great cities than any other one institution namable. This state- 
ment is easily proven, because the theater is usually closely con- 
nected with the saloon ; in fact, in the average play of our day 
the stars gather about the table and pour out the sparkling 
liquor, and by suggestion (and let me say here, suggestion is the 
greatest method of teaching and compelling action in the world) 
they inculcate the idea into the minds of the youth of the land 
that in order to be a hero or heroine one must drink liquor. It 
is a matter of fact that the liquor-drinking, the late hours, the 
unnatural atmosphere of the nerve-racking tragedy or drama, 
strike at the physical and nervous strength, and "dope" of some 
kind must be taken to fire the brain and 



2o 4 CAIN'S WIFE. 

"Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments, 
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of Mirth; 
Turn Melancholy forth to funerals, 
The pale companion is not for our pomp." 

The reign of sorrow which has swept America like a pall 
of death on account of the scourge of drunkenness has been 
greatly prospered by the theater as an institution; and then, 
when you consider the specific immorality of so many of the 
profession, you see their claim of standing as educators go by 
default. There are too many Evelyn Thaws in the profession. 
You say: "You are referring to the chorus-girl variety of 
actors and actresses." But I want to tell you it is a matter of 
fact that women who have lived disreputably, who have had 
some experience in a divorce suit or something of that order, are 
too often called the stars of the profession. Take Lillian Rus- 
sell, take Nat Goodwin; I don't know whether they know how 
many times they have been married or not. 

When I was in Butte, Montana, some eight or ten years 
ago, Kathryn Kidder, in company with Louis James, was tour- 
ing the West. The Anaconda Standard, published at Ana- 
conda, Montana, March 27, 1901, gave a lengthy report of 
Kathryn's experience in "bucking the roulette-wheel. The arti- 
cle is as follows: 

"She Loses Like a Sport. 

"Kathryn Kidder Bucks the Roulette-Wheel Heavily. 

"Cost Her Five Hundred. 

"She Pays up Like a Thoroughbred and Never Whimpers. 

"Famous Actress' Adventure in an Anaconda 
Gambling-House. 
" 'She is a dead-game sport!' was the admiring exclama- 
tion uttered by a roulette dealer when fair Kathryn Kidder left 
a Main Street gambling-room Monday afternoon, five hundred 
dollars loser, but smiling. Miss Kidder has the gambling fever 



CAIN'S WIFE. 205 

in her blood. She, like many another woman, has longed to 
gamble on the green board just like a man, and out here in the 
wild and wooly West came her opportunity; she embraced it 
royally, won like a princess, and lost like a thoroughbred ; verily, 
a dead-game sport." 

Then the article describes how the proprietor of the gam- 
bling-joint led Miss Kidder and her party into a gorgeously fur- 
nished private room, where a roulette-wheel appeared, and an 
"affable dealer" took his place behind the board, whirled the 
silently running circle of cells in one direction and the marble 
in the other, and then the play began. Miss Kidder led the 
gambling; the other "ladies" gambled less strenuously. Miss 
Kidder played recklessly, furiously, and with wonderful luck. 
Presently the bank found itself nearly $600 behind. Luck, 
however, turned to the bank. After four hours' play, the party 
left the rooms, their losses amounting to between $500 and 
$600, borne chiefly by Miss Kidder. 

A St. Louis dispatch to the Chicago Record-Herald de- 
scribes Miss Lillian Russell and her daughter (whose name I 
don't know, because she has been divorced, and I don't know 
whether she has married recently or not) at the race-track, bet- 
ting on certain horses — Saint Angus the Second, Ora McKin- 
ney, and some others. Miss Russell is quoted as follows: "I 
lost $3,000 on the day, and I think I was lucky that I did not 
lose my life." 

Ladies and gentlemen, I want your attention. I do not 
know anything about your social ties, but I am absolutely con- 
vinced, from considerable experience in travel (I have traveled 
in America, Europe, Mexico, Alaska, and Canada, and I know 
something about ladies and something about gentlemen) that 
the world's ideal of a lady is not in any wise summed up in the 
character of one who is mentioned by a dirty, dishonest, roulette 
dealer, as "a dead-game sport." (Applause.) What mat- 
ters it if the hero stands and in Stentorian tones declares himself 



206 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ready to defend his daughter with his life's blood, and then reg- 
isters as the husband of some female member of the aggregation) 
What matters it if the "shero" (heroine) pretends to die on the 
stage in defense of virtue and honor, when she spends the night 
in absolute infamy and wickedness ? 

I have in mind a list of amusements at the Chicago thea- 
ters which I cut from a Chicago paper some time ago. They 
run as follows, and represent the best theaters in the city of 
Chicago : 

"The Buffalo Mystery," 

"The James Boys in Missouri" (that must have 

been an edifying performance), 
"Sandy Bottom," 
"The Merchant of Venice," 
"For Her Sake," 
"The Tenderfoot," 

"Robert Emmet — The Days of 1 803," 
"Miss New York" — Burlesquers, 
"A Chinese Honeymoon," 
"The Voyagers," 

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home," 
"Curios," 
"A Lost Wife," 
"The Little Princess," 
"A Parisian Soiree," 
"King Dodo," 
"Lost in Siberia." 

The above list will compare favorably with the "edu- 
cators" as presented on the boards in the average city, but you 
perceive by a consideration of the above plays that the education 
derived from such nonsense will absolutely amount to nothing. 
There was a time in my life when I thought the stage was the 
only place possible for my future ; but when the grace of God 
got into my heart, and I felt called by the Spirit of the Lord to 
spend and be spent for the salvation of men and women, and I 
considered the speedy life of the stage, the late hours, the drunk- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 207 

enness, and other forms of wickedness which strike specifically 
at the nerve-centers and tear down the structure of physical 
strength, I decided that the nervous wrecks, the debauchery, the 
insanity, the criminality even to the extent of assassination, is 
the direct outgrowth of the false and unreal atmosphere in which 
the actors and actresses live continually. When I consider the 
best they have ever done, and compare amusing the people with 
winning them to Jesus Christ, who alone offers eternal life, I 
can say to you that I would rather be the poorest, little, bow- 
legged, circuit-riding, backwoods preacher than to be the great- 
est actor that ever lived. (Applause.) 

Some years ago, when I was lecturing in a Western city 
on this line, an old gentleman came to me and said: "I have one 
criticism to offer on your address." "Well," I said, "I am 
glad you came to me ; please tell me wherein I am lame." He 
said: "You didn't make it half strong enough. I have been 
on the stage twenty-five years, and I know what I am talking 
about." I told the old knight of the theater I would make it 
better, if he would forgive me. 

Some years ago, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Julia Morri- 
son, who was the leading woman with a company called "Mr. 
Plaster of Paris," was compelled to commit crime to defend her 
honor. She had entered the profession with high ideals, as has 
many another young woman; she found, however, that it was a 
daily fight with temptation (not only with the men of her own 
company, but with devotees of the theater who became infat- 
uated with her) to retain her honor. In Knoxville, Tennessee, 
she had been insulted by the leading man of the company and 
had warned him to desist with his insinuations, but he seemed 
disposed to regard her resistance as only temporary, and so he 
continued his insinuating and contemptible methods of appeal. 
When they were in Chattanooga, against her warning, he re- 
peated the insulting propositions, evidently while the play was 
in the first act, for she drew a revolver and fired the shot which 



208 CAWS WIFE. 

ended the life of the reprobate. The curtain dropped, and the 
manager said: "Ladies and gentlemen, you will please step to 
the box-office and get your money. The leading woman has 
murdered the leading man." The young woman took her 
smoking pistol, stepped from the stage entrance into a cab, and 
said: "Please drive me to the office of the criaef -of -police." 
When she reached the desk, she put the pistol before the officer, 
and said: "I am Julia Morrison; I have murdered the leading 
man in the 'Mr. Plaster of Paris' company." She was placed 
in a cell, where she spent the night. The trial was called as 
soon as possible. Witnesses were brought from Knoxville who 
had heard her remonstrating with the man in the case, and when 
the girl told her simple story, how she had repulsed his advances, 
and that she was finally compelled to shoot him in defense of 
her honor, that jury of Tennessee farmers acquitted the young 
woman, and the verdict of the jury substantially meant this: 
that in the eyes of honorable Southern manhood the virtue of a 
woman is worth more than the life of a dirty drab who will seek 
to wreck it. And I want to say "Amen!" to that kind of a 
verdict. (Tremendous applause.) 

I do not wonder that Jesus Christ stands at the door knock- 
ing, for I will say to you that you would not expect to find 
Jesus Christ occupying a box or a seat in the parquet circle in 
any opera-house in the world, sanctioning the work of a bunch 
of immoral reprobates simply for the sake of "Art." Church 
member, I want you to hear me. Jesus Christ will follow you 
and knock at your heart's door all the way to the theater, but 
He will not go into the building and take a seat next to you 
and enjoy the play. And I am not speaking from hearsay, but 
I speak from experience when I say that it is time for the Church 
of God to live the separate life. V/hen Jesus Christ can have 
a peculiar people zealous of good works in every church in 
America, the unsaved will come flocking into the kingdom of 
God as doves to their windows. When you have allowed the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 209 

theater to occupy your heart, you have left no room for Jesus 
Christ, and if He is outside knocking for entrance, it is an indi- 
cation that you are in eternal danger. 

The influence of the theater in lowering the standards of 
respect for the home is pernicious to the highest degree. I be- 
lieve without a doubt the characterlessness of the stage has had 
a great deal to do with the spread of the divorce evil in this 
country. Recently, at the close of Paul Bourget's great play, 
"Une Divorcee," in Lyons, France, the Lyons Republicain, a 
reputable daily paper of that city, took ballots on the divorce 
proposition in the audience. The influence of the stage is 
clearly evidenced in the following facts: 877 in the audience 
voted for absolute free love and free unions (668 of the num- 
ber were men and the remaining 209 were women) ; 63 voted 
that divorces should be granted on the request of either party 
(only 3 of the number were women) ; 121 voted that divorces 
should be granted by mutual consent (73 of the number were 
men, 48 were women) ; 7 1 voted that the present divorce laws 
of France should be upheld (65 were men, 1 6 were women) ; 
1 42 voted along the lines of barring divorces from France ( 1 39 
were men and 3 v/ere women). Out of a total of 1 ,274 voting 
on the proposition, a little more than two-thirds showed them- 
selves to be utterly devoid of moral sentiment and common 
decency, and I want you to understand that the theater is a 
national institution in France; it is supported by the Govern- 
ment. I have seen them crowding the Place de l'Opera by the 
thousands. You let America go in partnership with the theater, 
and continue its present partnership with the whisky traffic and 
let the church life of the nation drop out from the prayer-meet- 
ings and Sunday night services and attend the theater, and in ten 
years you will find America with its dash and spirit the most 
corrupt nation the sun ever shone upon. 

In a recent number of Success, an article called "The 
Trail of the Tenderloin" describes the present infamy of the 



2io CAIN'S WIFE. 

stage. The article is unusually severe in its denunciations of 
the vulgarity and rottenness of the stage of the present day. 
The writer, Mr. Eaton, says: "The Trail of the Tenderloin" 
is over our stage. What does this mean? It means that a 
trivial, pleasure-loving, somewhat hectic class of men and wom- 
en, who make up so large a part of the theatrical audiences on 
Broadway, New York, are imposing their tastes, their stand- 
ards, their vulgarity, upon the theater-goers of America. It 
means more than this. It means that to-day, as a result of the 
dominance of New York taste over the American stage, the 
tyrannical dominance of a group of New York theatrical man- 
agers over the theaters of the entire country, an unprecedented 
wave of licentiousness in theatrical entertainment has arisen and 
is moving slimily out from the Tenderloiji, into the real United 
States. Vaudeville is already inundated. Musical comedy has 
in the past two or three years sunk in many cases to the level 
of back-alley Parisian indecency. The dramatic stage itself 
has felt the influence and let down the gates to farces of the 
rankest suggestiveness." 

He gives, as the reason for this infamous condition, the 
fact that indecency pays; and adds: "We safeguard our chil- 
dren by forbidding saloons within so many feet of a school. 
We safeguard health by forbidding expectoration in public 
places. We keep certain books off the shelves of our public 
libraries. We exclude objectionable matter from the United 
States mails. But we are permitting every man, woman, and 
child to-day who goes to a vaudeville theater (the best of vaude- 
ville theaters) to see naked woman exposed to view and almost 
naked women going through the filthy motions of the most ob- 
scene of Oriental dances. We are permitting our young men 
in so-called 'first-class' theaters to hear licentious dialogue which 
is not spoken to illustrate a social truth, with serious purpose, 
but solely to rouse laughter at sexual immorality. We are 
permitting these same young men to face the constant assault on 



CAIN'S WIFE. 211 

their lowest passions of indecent gestures by young women on 
the stage, of craftily arranged nudity, and the specious glamor 
of foreign 'fast life.' To reform a manager, hit him in the 
pocket." , 

Archbishop Farley delivered a sermon some time ago, in 
which he makes this amazing statement: "The stage is worse 
to-day than it was in the days of paganism. We see to-day 
men and women — old men and old women — who ought to know 
better, bringing the young to these orgies of obscenity. Instead 
of that, they should be exercising a supervision over the young, 
and should look carefully after their companionship." 

The New York Times, dated February 10, 1909, pre- 
sents this statement from Charles Burnham, manager of Wal- 
lack's Theater and president of the Theatrical Managers' As- 
sociation of New York: "If I had my way, there are five 
shows in New York I would close. It is a harsh thing to say 
that there should be a stage censorship, but the events of the 
day point toward it just the same. If New York managers 
continue to put on the indecent shows that have drawn the 
crowds for the last twelve months or more, we will have a stage 
censor. There are shows running on Broadway to-day to which 
no right-minded man would take his mother, his wife, or his 
sister." 

In the light of these newspaper denunciations, it is an easy 
thing to brand the theatricals of the present generation as utterly 
decadent, debauched, and contemptible. But while third-rate 
evangelists and second-class preachers say that the stage is soon 
to be so purified that it will be second to the pulpit, the Devil 
kicks up his heels and holds high carnival, while the pandemo- 
nium of impurity, Stanford White-ism, Harry Thaw-ilsm, and 
every other licentious, adulterous, and murderous "ism" pros- 
pers. The contemptible "Salome" dances; the professional 
women swimmers in skin-tight union suits ; the naked, shivering 
women called "Bare Bronze Beauties," who are covered with 



212 CAIN'S WIFE. 

bronze paint and thus exhibit their bodies almost totally naked 
before licentious and base theatrical devotees ; imported French 
actresses, at whose maelstroms of vulgarity and evident sexual 
debasement even Paris has shuddered — these give an idea that 
"The Soul Kiss," or "Mrs. Warren's Profession," or "The 
Easiest Way," or "Miss Innocence," or "The Girl from Rect- 
or's," or "The Queen of the Moulin Rouge," and other assaults 
on the lower passions of a debased constituency of the theater, 
have reached their level in their specific appeals of obscenity 
and European vulgarity. 

It is time for the pulpit and pew to unite in denouncing the 
corrupt profession. When purity and religion and decent char- 
acter can characterize the life of the stage, then it is time to have 
some respect for it ; but until that time comes, and it will never 
come so long as the Devil has charge of the stage, keep yourself 
and your family aloof from the soul-blighting and virtue-destroy- 
ing atmosphere of the theater. 

"O Jesus, Thou art standing 

Outside the fast closed door, 
In lowly patience waiting 

To pass the threshold o'er. 
We bear the name of Christians, 

His name and sign we bear; 
Oh shame, thrice shame upon us, 

To keep Him standing there!" 

The Card Game. 
The love of the card-table is also keeping Jesus Christ out 
of thousands of hearts. Members of the Church as well as non- 
professing Christians have gone pleasure-mad, and many a 
church amounts to little more than a company of female gam- 
blers. I presume the best historical data regarding the creation 
of the card-deck, as it is brought to us, presents the peculiar fact 
that they were sketched by some half artist or knave at the court 
of an insane Asiatic king, and the poor, old, stupid, mental 



CAIN'S WIFE. 213 

bankrupt sat around like a child, playing with his cards. It 
finally became the fashion at the court to play because the king 
played ; whatever the king did was the style, although the king 
was a fool. Then it spread to Europe, and it became the fad 
in Europe because a fool king had played the game ; and then 
it spread to America, and became the fad because a bullet- 
headed bunch of Europeans played because a fool Asiatic king 
had played. And when we trace the thing right down to its 
mental and moral status, I reckon the reason why so many peo- 
ple enjoy the game is because there is considerable mental sym- 
pathy between the old insane king, and the bunch who seem 
unable to enjoy an afternoon or evening without cards. 
(Applause. ) 

There is no such a thing as a compromise position on this 
line, if you intend to live a clean-cut life. The place to draw 
the line in regard to the theater is in front of the whole business ; 
make up your mind that you will never cross the line. The 
contemptible idea that the theater is a place where we may gain 
moral stimulus and impetus simply means a compromise ; and the 
only place to draw the line in regard to the card-table is in front 
of the whole business. 

You will find preachers making the statement that there 
is no harm in a game of euchre or whist or cinch, comparing 
these games with authors and flinch and other simple home 
games. The minister who makes a statement of that sort has 
sold his birthright for a mess of pottage ; and there are quite a 
number of evangelists in the country who take that kind of a 
stand in regard to the matter, simply for the sake of playing the 
policy puppet and slipping into meetings in towns where the pas- 
tors have not backbone enough to stand by a worker who gives 
the inspired Apostle's demand: "Come out from among them, 
and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing." 

I was in a community some years ago, conducting a meet- 
ing, when a young lady came to me and said: "Brother Oli- 



2i4 CAIN'S WIFE. 

ver, if we do not play cards, what on earth will we do?" Con- 
sidering the intellectual caliber of the king for whom they were 
invented and the intellectual caliber of a person who will ask a 
question of that sort, I am placed in an embarrassing position 
before this great audience. (Laughter.) I might advocate, for 
the benefit of such intellectual capacity, the making of mud- 
pies, or taking a straw in the summer-time and chasing doodle- 
bugs in the middle of the road, as I used to do when I was a 
little boy on the farm. (Laughter and applause.) If people 
of intelligence would really like to know what can be done in 
order that an evening might be spent profitably, I find no diffi- 
culty in giving a variety of answers. For instance, if the young 
people and older people should disband their iniquitous whist 
clubs and dancing clubs and decide to spend one or two even- 
ings each month in studying the history of art, also the lives of 
the great master artists and their greatest creations, by the time 
they have spent one season in careful study of this most interest- 
ing subject, they can practically tell you the location of the 
greatest masterpieces of the world and they will be well versed 
in the subject of art. Suppose you add to that study a study 
of literature ; one or two evenings a month can be spent in the 
study of the finest prose and poetry and humor, in the best 
libraries; and when a season's study along that line has been 
enjoyed, the people can interest their friends in a conversation in 
regard to literature. Then add to that a study of the sciences, 
and devote one or two evenings each month to the study of 
liquid air, solidified air, solidified gas; and add another set of 
evenings on modern inventions, taking up wireless telegraphy, 
wireless telephoning, aeroplanes, and any amount of the recent 
triumphs of inventive genius. 

Then add music to the list, and study the master musi- 
cians of history and their productions, and you can find in 
the study of music descriptive possibilities as great as in the 
realm of the brush and paint; for instance, the great Russian 



CAIN'S WIFE. 



215 



pianist Rachmaninoff composed a piece of music descriptive of 
the burning of Moscow and the desertion of the city by the 
Russians at the approach of Napoleon and the French Army. 
The bells in the old Kremlin are ringing, the smaller bells are 
also heard, the rattling musketry, the impetuous dash of the 
Cossacks, the Russian cavalry; and in this phenomenal compo- 
sition you will find as much coloring in point of tonal descrip- 
tion as you could possibly find in a master artist's conception of 
the same thing on canvas. Adding to the remarkable interest 
which is easily aroused in the piano score, vocal music or music 
with the smaller instruments, the entire season can pass with in- 
tense interest and latent ability can be developed, the intellectual 
life of the community improved anywhere from 50 to 500 per 
cent, and the character will in no wise be compromised. (Great 
applause.) It does not speak well for the sense of men and 
women to find the afternoon or evening stupid and dull without 
the deck of cards being brought into use. I would just as soon 
put a kit of burglar tools in the hands of my daughter and teach 
her how to use them, if I knew, as to place a deck of cards in 
her hand and teach her the game. 

One of the lies that has been circulated about me is that I 
am a professional gambler. The fact is, I never played a game 
of cards in my life, and I have a good reason. When I was a 
boy, my father told me that he never wanted to catch me with 
a deck of cards on my person ; that under no condition should I 
ever bring a deck of cards in the house. He added very im- 
pressively: "If I ever see you with a deck of cards in your 
hands, or in your room, or about you, I will literally wear you 
out." (Laughter and applause.) My previous experiences 
with him along the line above named had convinced me that he 
was able to deliver the goods ; I therefore had no disposition to 
question his determination to keep the home absolutely free from 
any such contamination. 

When I meet my daughter at the judgment, she will never 



2i6 CAIN'S WIFE. 

be able to point her finger in my face and charge me with hav- 
ing taught her the game which led her from God and the right. 
Two years before I entered Christian work, I traveled and mads 
a number of the largest cities in America as well as many of the 
smaller cities. I presume I have been asked scores of times in 
hotels by commercial travelers to take a hand in some game. I 
have thanked God many a time, since I surrendered my life to 
Him in His service, that I did not know the game. I there- 
fore had only to say: "Thank you, gentlemen; I do not play 
the game, as I know nothing about cards." 

The dishonesty of parents who teach the game to their 
children is quite apparent. For instance, any amount of them 
say: "If I taught my children that it was wrong to play cards, 
they would go out in the community and learn the game." 
All right; we will take that as a basis of argument. Don't 
teach your daughter that it is wrong to steal, for fear she will 
immediately go out and learn to steal. Don't teach her that it 
is a frightful thing to be careless of her associations, for fear 
that you will engender carelessness and impurity as a result of 
your splendid advice. Don't tell your boy that it is wrong to 
become a drunken wretch, or that it is ignoble and base to be- 
come a gambler or the peddler of vulgar and obscene stories, 
for fear that he will immediately go out and become utterly 
perverse and decrepit. If you are turning out the right kind of 
boys and girls, they will be glad to receive your advice and they 
will be glad to respect your wishes in regard to their habits and 
their morals. A man or woman who has no convictions along 
moral or religious lines is not fit to raise mud -turtles, to say noth- 
ing of boys and girls. You teach your girl to live a pure life 
because you realize that an entrance into the decent element of 
society is thus secured. You teach your boy to be an honorable 
gentleman in order that he may have the respect of the com- 
munity in which he lives and expects to do business. You fail 
to teach your children that it is wrong to play cards because you 



CAIN'S WIFE. 217 

are a backboneless, contemptible puppet; and I want that to 
soak in. (Applause.) 

Others have come to me and have said: "You hardly 
understand the situation in our home. We taught our children 
to play cards, so that when they go away from home and they 
are asked to play, they will say: 'No, thank you; I can play 
cards at home with papa and mamma.' " Did you ever notice, 
when your chickens got over into your neighbor's yard and found 
the corn which he had placed there for his chickens which have 
not been turned out of the hen-house, that your chickens immedi- 
ately turned and ran home to "papa and mamma," where they 
were sure to get plenty of corn? (Laughter.) Did you ever 
notice, when your pigs broke through the fence into the neigh- 
bor's corn-field, when they found corn all around them, that 
they fled precipitately for "papa and mamma" in order that 
they might secure a good supply of corn? Did you ever notice 
how your children, who are fed ice-cream and chicken and peas 
and potatoes and carrots and beans and beets and beef and mut- 
ton and venison and apple-dumpling, and all the rest of the fine 
food-stuff which you can put upon your table, invariably turn 
and run home to "papa and mamma" as soon as they are offered 
a square meal at a neighbor's home? (Laughter and applause.) 
The fact is this : if you teach your boys and girls to play cards 
at home (and I have heard of some contemptible hypocrites in 
the churches of this community who have insisted that their chil- 
dren learn the game), they will cultivate a love for the game, 
and consequently, when they are approached by others who play 
the game away from your home, they will be glad to enter 
heartily into the game. 

I have in my library a book by John Philip Quinn. The 
author was a professional gambler for more than twenty-five 
years. He spent a number of years in one of the Indiana peni- 
tentiaries as a result of his gambling. While he was incar- 
cerated in that prison, his little daughter died and his wife for- 



218 CAIN'S WIFE. 

sook him and repudiated him. The calamities which piled up- 
on him broke his heart. He evidently was not guilty of the 
crime charged in the indictment. He dropped upon his knees 
in his prison-cell and promised God that if He would help him 
out of the prison, he would expose gambling, and he would 
serve the Lord faithfully to his dying day. He made a state- 
ment which is well worth the consideration of any intelligent 
person in my hearing. It is this: "The so-called Christian, 
homes of America are the kindergartens for the gambler's hell." 

Figures do not lie; 90 per cent of the gamblers declare 
that they were taught to play the games in their homes ; 80 per 
cent of the gamblers say their parents were church members. 
When men and women tell me that there is no harm in the social 
game with the select party, I answer, with these figures before 
me: "Neighbor, you have simply lied." If the gamblers of 
the nation had learned the game in the gambling-joints, you 
might have a right to say that you see no harm in the social 
game; but when the great majority of the foul wretches who 
play the game for a living learned it in their homes, a man is 
either the chief of dullards or a stupid jackanapes who cannot 
see the harm in the social game. It is not the last game the 
embezzler plays which lands him behind prison bars. The first 
game is the game that ruined his future. 

Some years ago, when I was in a Western city, friends 
came to me and asked me to preach to the prisoners in the county 
jail. I preached, and asked all who had a desire to get right 
with God to kneel in prayer. Every prisoner knelt ; I stepped 
along the line, giving words of encouragement, and finally I 
reached a man who was nicely dressed. I bent over him and 
offered words of encouragement ; he threw his arms around my 
neck and cried like a child. He said: "Oliver, I have seen 
better days." I was convinced that he spoke the truth. I 
said: "How does it happen that you are here?" He an- 
swered: "I am the embezzler from Omaha." I asked: 



CAIN'S WIFE. 219 

"How in the world did you happen to desert your family and 
leave them in disgrace, chagrin, and sorrow?" He replied: 
"I was gambling in the open gambling-joinls in Omaha; I lost 
heavily; I stole money from the bank, hoping to make up my 
losses. Finally they began to suspect me. The books were ex- 
amined, and I simply could not bare to face my sweet wife and 
my innocent children. I left the city, and they caught me here 
in Salt Lake." He had been a "high-flyer" in the society of 
Omaha. He had attended the whist parties. I presume he had 
gambled with any amount of church members in that city, as 
there was "no harm" in the social game; but he wound up in 
the penitentiary. There is "no harm" in infatuating young 
men with the false hope of making a dishonest living. Let them 
become crazed with the gambling fever until they steal the money 
from the banks, and stores, and offices, and the treasuries of the 
nation ; let them be branded thieves and criminals by the judges 
and by the juries; let them fill the jails and prison-cells; but 
keep the bridge whist and the progressive euchre parties in action. 
Despise the preacher who denounces your infamy; oppose the 
great evangelistic campaign which stands for honesty and com- 
mon decency in business as well as the social life of the nation ; 
pat your shallow hypocrites on the back and gloss them over 
with church membership, but let them gamble for sterling silver, 
cut-glass, fancy china, and have some little pulpit puppet get up 
and say: "Card-playing is simply a matter of conscience." 
(Applause. "Hit 'em again!" spoken from the audience.) 

I would just as soon be pastor of one bunch of gamblers 
as another. If you are going to keep in your churches the so- 
called respectable society leaders who make it a business to gam- 
ble in their social card games, hang a sign over your church- 
door: "All gamblers cordially invited to become members of 
this congregation. Certificates of church membership furnished 
for your gambling-dens on application." How would you like 
to read in the low dives of your city, "This gambling-den oper- 



22© CAIN'S WIFE. 

ated by a member of the Methodist Church in good standing"? 
or in another, "This is a Presbyterian gambling-den"? or in an- 
other, "This is a Congregational gambling-den"? or in another, 
"We are members of the Christian Church"? And the pastor 
in his daily round should be compelled to sit up alongside the 
tables or the roulette-wheels and give spiritual advice to the 
prosperous members of his congregation who make their living 
by the ignoble profession of gambling. I have seen the un- 
cultured squaws of the plains and mountains, and the Mexican 
greasers, and the peasantry of Europe engaged in gambling, and 
I want you to understand that the foul old hag who sits in the 
Monte Carlo gambling-palace, risking her last franc on the wheel 
that turns, is not so dangerous to the society of the country as 
are the church members and non-church members in the society 
whirl whose influence over the young people of the community 
is absolute, and who are teaching the young men and young 
women to gamble, while in their social position they seek to em- 
bellish and nickel-plate and galvanize the dishonesty of their 
wicked practices. 

Suppose a bunch of negroes were caught gambling in an 
alley in your community ; or suppose a company of low white 
gamblers were found plying their nefarious profession in the 
community; your city officials would trot them off to jail and 
fine them heavily and nobody would object to the punishment 
inflicted. In the name of common honesty and fairness, I say 
to you, the next time a bridge whist or progressive euchre game 
or any other sort of a gambling game is pulled off in a society 
home in your city, have the city marshal go down and arrest the 
whole bunch and trot them off to jail. ("Amens!" and ap- 
plause.) Some of you preachers would have to go down and 
bail some of your members out of the jail, according to good 
reports. (Renewed applause. "I would not bail my bunch 
out," spoken by a pastor. Applause.) If the card-game is so 



CAIN'S WIFE. 221 

harmless, why is it that the best ministers of America have in- 
variably stood four-square against it? It certainly is not senti- 
ment that leads a man to denounce moderate drinking or drink- 
ing to excess. It is not sentiment which leads a minister to 
advocate the importance of living an honorable, virtuous life. 
It is not sentiment on the part of the father when he tells 
his little child to keep away from the fire and never to play 
with razors. The sense of self-preservation, physical, moral, 
and spiritual, demands that we draw the line somewhere. 
Some people say to me: "Card-playing never hurt me." I 
want you to listen to me (if there are any such pusillanimous 
little runts in this audience) : There are some folks who are so 
low down that they can't be hurt. "Ye are not your own, ye 
are bought with a price." You have therefore no right to take 
the time which belongs to God's service and to helping humanity 
and consume it in idleness and in that which does not improve 
or make the world better. "No man liveth to himself, no man 
dieth to himself." 

Some years ago, in Illinois, a young man who had learned 
the game in his own home began gambling, and he made quite 
a stake in a gamblmg-joint in his town. He was so elated that 
he went to his brother, who was his partner in business, and 
said: "Spen, you take the business; I can make more gam- 
bling." So he went to Chicago and entered a joint which was 
operated by the Honorable (?) Patrick Sheeley, one of the 
noble (?) politicians of Chicago. He gambled there until I 
believe he said his luck brought him $18,000. Then he went 
to New Orleans to gamble on the races and prize-fights, and 
down there he struck a live wire, and in two weeks he tele- 
graphed his brother for money to get home. i 
The gambling fever is a mania which indicates an un- 
balanced condition mentally ; it as classified in nervous disorders 
as "Aboulia." I believe the average church member who finds 
such delight in the ignoble practice has slipped a cog mentally. 



222 CAIN'S WIFE. 

I was in a State hospital for the insane some time ago, and I 
saw an old, palsied, intellectual bankrupt, sitting at a table, 
playing solitaire. His hands were trembling, and his head was 
shaking, and I said within my soul: "Water will find its level. 
The card game is being enjoyed by the equal of the man for 
whom they were invented." When they send you to an insane 
asylum, take your little deck of cards with you and enjoy them 
to your fill ; but wait until you are adjudged insane before you 
start the game. (Applause.) 

Some years ago a friend of mine, who is prominent in the 
religious work of the world, had a private secretary who had 
been a gambler and other things to match. He professed con- 
version and really seemed to be in earnest for a time, but my 
friend made the mistake of turning the book business over to ham, 
which meant the handling of thousands of dollars the year 
around. The temptation was too great. He embezzled, he 
was guilty of forgery, and would have been sent to the peni- 
tentiary but for the fact that my friend brought no action against 
him. I know the facts in the case, for he touched me for sixty 
dollars and an overcoat. I loaned him the overcoat and the 
sixty dollars, and I have never seen the overcoat nor the sixty 
dollars since. 

Some years ago, in one of the Eastern cities, a fifteenryear- 
old boy stepped into the library and awaited the appearance of 
his mother. An evangelistic meeting was being held in the city 
and he was expecting to accompany his mother to the meeting 
that night. When she came, she was rigged out in her soci- 
ety sails. He said: "Mother, aren't you going to the meet- 
ing to-night?" She said: "No. Didn't I tell you that I 
was invited over to the card party?" He replied: "No. I 
thought of course you would go to the meeting." She said: 
"Well, you go to the meeting." But the desire to attend the 
meeting had all left the boy. Four years later, when the moth- 
er of the boy realized that he was the leading gambler of his 



CAIN'S WIFE. 223 

social set, she began to try to wean him from the card-game, as 
she found herself many a night sitting in her distressed condi- 
tion of mind until the early hours of morning, waiting for her 
boy to come home. She had seen the folly of her ways, had 
renounced her card parties, and during a meeting which was be- 
ing conducted, she tried to win the boy to Christ ; but he told 
his mother that he didn't care to be religious; that four years 
before, when she told him in the library that she was going to 
the card party, the decision he had reached that night to become 
a Christian was instantly reversed, for he considered that if his 
mother cared no more about the religion of Jesus Christ, in the 
light of what had been said in the meeting against the card- 
table, there surely could not be very much in religion. Three 
months after the mother had tried in vain to win him to Christ, 
a police officer went to the home about four o'clock one morning 
and called the father of that young man into the parlor. He 
was a wealthy man, and the officer said: "I am very sorry to 
trouble you at this time, but I have come to tell you that your 
son is a murderer, and he is in a murderer's cell." The father 
shuddered under the terrible blow, and said: "Aren't you mis- 
taken?" The officer replied: "No; I can not be mistaken. 
I have known your son for years." The old gentleman dressed 
himself and went over to the jail to see his boy. During the 
trial he was sentenced to the electric chair. The night before 
he was executed his parents went to his cell, and his mother was 
almost in hysteria, so great was her distress. She said: "My 
boy, my boy, how in the world did you ever happen to do it? 
Why did you bring this sorrow upon us?" The boy stood with 
tearless eyes, facing his parents who had taught him the social 
card-game in their home. He said: "I will tell you why I 
did it. You taught me the game. You said there was no 
harm in it. I learned to love it ; it became the passion of my life. 
The man beat me at my game and I killed him. If you had 
never taught me the game, I would not be here to-night, a con- 



224 CAIN'S WIFE. 

demned murderer." Those parents will meet that murderous 
wretch at the judgment-bar of God, and he can point his bony 
finger in their faces and say: "I am a condemned criminal for 
eternity, because you taught me the game." 

There are probably people in hell to-night from this city 
as a direct result of your characterlessness, your lack of con- 
viction, your lack of manhood, and your lack of womanhood ; 
and Jesus Christ is standing at the door, knocking. How He 
longs to change your wicked heart into a place of beauty and 
strength of character! "Behold, I stand at the door, and 
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
come in to hirn, and will sup with him, and he with Me." 

I wonder how many in this audience feel disposed to go 
from the communion-table or the baptismal service to the theater, 
the card-table, or the dance? The table of the Lord is not 
compatible with the table of devils. You certainly would not 
expect to see Jesus Christ playing bridge whist or progressive 
euchre or cinch with any of the gambling church members of 
this community. 

There are people here who claim that there is no harm in 
these gambling games in the home. The Attorney-General of 
the United States has recently, through his subordinates, ren- 
dered a decision which covers the ground. He says the games 
in homes for prizes are to be looked upon as lotttery ; that invi- 
tations passing through the mail or newspapers reporting such 
affairs can be barred from the mail because they directly violate 
the Federal laws regarding lottery. If some of your church 
members and other gambling card-players get a term in the Fed- 
eral prison, you may discover that there is some harm in your 
wickedness, after all. 

The Dance. 
I am certain Jesus Christ could not be found on the ball- 
room floor, embracing any of the women of this audience. The 



CAIN'S WIFE. 225 

fact that the brainiest leaders of all the honorable religious life 
of the nation have taken the standi against the dance, including 
Catholic bishops and archbishops, Episcopalian bishops, Meth- 
odist bishops, United Brethren bishops, and the dignitaries of 
Israel in all the evangelical Churches, expresses, as a consensus 
of opinion, their unequivocal disapproval of the dance. There 
is one Church, however, which countenances it; in fact, the 
dances of that Church are carried on sometimes in their meeting- 
houses; they are opened with prayer and closed with the ben- 
ediction. Perhaps some of you renegade church members will 
say: "By all means, that is the Church for me." And I will 
guarantee the ministers on this platform will be glad to give you 
a letter to that Church to-night, in order to get rid of you. The 
institution I am mentioning is the Mormon Church of Utah. I 
can easily understand why a Church which practices and 
preaches polygamy and fornication, and which practically knows 
no morality, can endorse the demands of modern society. 
There must be fuel added to the fire. 

Some years ago, when I was in a Northern city, a com- 
pany of young ladies came to interview me regarding the amuse- 
ment question. They represented the best social life of the 
fashionable East End. The young lady who was spokeswoman 
for the company said: "We have come to ask you to tell us 
the harm in the dance. We want to become Christians, but we 
can not see why we should give up the dance." I think there 
were six or seven magnificent young ladies in the group; I was a 
single young man, and of course I spoke with great dignity and 
soberness to the young ladies assembled. I asked, in the first 
place, if the young ladies were really positive that they meant to 
give up the dance in case I showed them the harm in it. I was 
assured immediately, for all joined in saying: "Yes, indeed." 
Then I addressed the young lady who had begun the conversa- 
tion, and I said: "Mass , would it be proper for me 

to assume the position with you here in the presence of these 



226 CAIN'S WIFE. 

young ladies which is assumed invariably on the ball-room floor 
by the partners in the dance?" She said: "No, indeed." 
Then I asked: "Would it be proper for me to assume that 
position with you in the church across the way?" She an- 
swered, with considerable spirit: "Good gracious! no." I 
continued: "Would it be proper for me to assume that posi- 
tion in your home with you?" Whereupon the young lady ex- 
claimed: "If you look at it in that way, Mr. Oliver, I can see 
the harm in it." I closed the conversation with these words: 
"There is no other way to look at it. If it is not right, proper, 
decent, or advisable for me to assume that position with you 
here, or in the church, or in your home, or on the street, since I 
am not engaged to marry you and am not a blood relative, it is 
not right for any other man on the earth to assume that position 
with you at any other place under similar circumstances." The 
young ladies were immediately convinced, and they became 
earnest Christians. 

If there is anything in the world that makes me tired — in 
fact, if there is anything to me utterly disgusting, it is to see these 
little married whiffets running off to the dance. I have mighty 
little respect for married women who cannot be hugged suffi- 
ciently by their own husbands. (Applause.) If there are 
any of you married women in this audience to-night who are in 
such condition, you had better have a hugging machine made 
and wear it. (Applause.) How do you suppose I would 
feel if I returned from this community to my home, and my 
wife began to tell me of the numerous men who had been gal- 
loping over the ball-room floor, embracing her while the dreamy 
waltz was on? The fact is this (it is an old statement, but an 
old truth, and as staple as salt) : If you want to kill the dance 
in this community, separate the sexes. It is the thrill of the em- 
brace that makes the dance attractive, and these men here to- 
night would just as soon hug a barrel of pickles as to hug some 
man on a ball-room floor for an hour or two. I believe in hug- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 227 

ging as much as any man you ever saw. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) I am absolutely certain that you have a right to hug 
your — mother-in-law. (Tremendous applause.) You have a 
right to hug your grandmother. (Laughter.) You have a 
right to hug your mother, you v sister, your wife, and your rela- 
tives; but, you old scoundrel, if I ever catch you in my house, 
trying to hug my wife, I will take a joint or two out of your 
backbone with the first convenient crowbar or sledge-hammer I 
can get hold of. (Applause.) Did you ever see a man spend 
the entire evening at the dance dancing with his sister, or with 
his wife, or with his mother? Nonsense! You can hug your 
wife at home; you don't have to go to a dance to get that 
chance. You take the men who are so anxious to take their 
wives to the dance, and I will explain their anxiety ; they simply 
want to get an opportunity to hug some other fellow's wife or 
daughter. ; 

I say to you to-night, modesty is one of the strongest 
defenses of virtue. There is not a girl in this community who 
can go to a dance and find herself in the embrace of the average 
bunch of young men with whom she is compelled to dance, who 
can leave that function with as much modesty as she had when 
she went to the dance. Some lying reprobate will go from this 
meeting to-night and say: "Oliver said every woman who 
dances is impure in her life." If you meet that scoundrel on 
the street to-morrow, you tell him that before God Almighty 
and the angels and the intelligent people of this audience, I 
brand him a liar in advance. (Great applause.) There are 
any amount of ignorant girls who know nothing about the causes 
of the real delight of the dance; they are inexperienced; they 
know very little about the operation of Nature's laws ; but the 
men with whom they dance know a great deal about these things, 
and purposely plan to bring about the closest possible proximity 
of the bodies. And I want to tell you right here, that it is 
absolutely impossible for a pure, sweet girl to go upon the ball- 



228 CAIN'S WIFE. 

room floor in your select social dances, or in the public ball, or in 
the contemptible free-for-all, but that she will sooner or later run 
into the embrace of some person who is an adulterous, licentious 
reprobate; and I challenge you to disprove this fact. The 
young woman who cares the most about herself and her future 
will reserve her kisses and embraces for her prince when he 
comes to lead her to the marriage altar. The young woman 
who has no compunctions of conscience about distributing her 
embraces broadcast throughout the community may not be at 
home when you get back from your day's work sometime, neigh- 
bor, if she becomes your wife. I want to serve notice on you 
that I did not go to the ball-room to select my wife, and she 
will make the majority of you dancing women look like a wheel- 
barrow in an automobile parade, and don't you forget that. 
(Applause.) , 

In speaking of the dance, take a picture of a man, for in- 
stance, who does not dance, who is married to a nagging little 
whiffet who wants to dance. She will begin begging him to 
take her to the dance. The husband tries to make excuses, and 
then her head moves as fast as a trip-hammer as she whines and 
whimpers in her kittenish gibberish: "You don't seem to want 
me to have a bit of fun ; you never want me to have a good time. 
There is no harm in the dance, and you can go and sit there and 
have a good time watching me dance." So he follows on to 
the dance and takes his seat amongst the spectators, and he 
looks, and, to his dumb amazement, the old sweetheart of his 
wife comes out for his share of the spoils, and with strange 
delight he takes the wife of our spectator in his arms, and they 
travel the well-waxed floor together, while the husband sits there 
having — a lovely time. (Laughter and applause.) Watch 
the expression of his face. (Here the speaker's face gives ex- 
pression to the jealous rage which is shown in the face of the 
unhappy husband. (Great applause.) Finally they swing 
around toward the unhappy wretch, and he steps out with the 



CAIN'S WIFE. 229 

words: "Mary, I have a terrible headache; I want you to 
come at once." She follows her liege lord and master wearily 
and discontentedly to a fireside made desolate and despicable 
because the silly little goose hasn't sense enough to realize that 
God never made a wife to be hugged by all the men of a com- 
munity. And yet they tell me there is "no harm" in the dance. 
Brethren of the ministry, I want you to hear me. If there 
isn't any harm in the dance, we have been losing a lot of fun. 
If there is no harm in the dance, we had better have one to- 
morrow night, and I will have the Methodist preacher lead out 
with some of the sistern and the Baptist preacher follow with 
some lovely lady from some other church, and the Presbyterian 
preacher break over his staid dignity and come galloping out 
here with some buxom young damsel from his flock ; and if there 
is no harm in it, you will catch me with the rest of the bunch. 
(Much laughter and applause.) I want your attention. If your 
ministers appeared on the ball-room floor in this community and 
danced with the women, young or old, they would lose their 
positions inside of forty-eight hours. (Cries of "That 's so.") 
You tell me there is no harm in the dance? I want to 
make it very plain ; you are a liar. If you should catch me in 
your home to-night in the same position which the dance allows, 
with your wife or your daughter, the next report I would hear 
would be the report of a double-barreled shot-gun, and I prob- 
ably would receive a load of buck-shot. (Applause.) I 
would be considered in a compromising position with your rela- 
tive, and you would not need any better evidence in the court- 
room to secure a divorce from your wife than that which would 
be produced by such an act on my part. It would be tele- 
graphed all over America that "Evangelist Oliver was em- 
bracing the wife or daughter of So-and-so in such and such a 
town ; although he is a married man and was invited to conduct 
a union evangelistic campaign in this city ; on account of this sen- 
sational development, he has been repudiated by the ministers 



2 3 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

and the people of the entire community." You say there is no 
harm in the dance when for me to assume that position with your 
wife or daughter would wreck my ministerial career? I again 
brand you a lying reprobate. (Applause.) 

Suppose a case : When you return to your home to-night, 
you find some man sitting in your parlor with his arms about your 
wife; you pick up a cudgel and start toward him, saying, 
"Here, you scoundrel, what do you mean by coming into my 
home in my absence and embracing my wife?" and he should 
calmly lift his hand and say, "Don't be excited at all; we are 
simply having a still waltz." Would that satisfy you? Wife, 
suppose you should find your husband embracing your next-door 
neighbor, and you should ask him to explain his actions, and he 
would say, "We are simply having a quiet waltz." Would 
that satisfy you? 

If you have the intelligence of a mud-turtle, I will con- 
vince you to-night that the dance is responsible for the ruination 
of more young women than any other social amusement in the 
universe. Some years ago, when I was in Alaska, a man caraa 
to me, who was captain of a boat making the Alaskan ports. 
He said: "Oliver, I heard you lecture on the dance to-night, 
and you preached my funeral sermon." He had been con- 
verted in the meeting a few nights before, and I said : "Cap- 
tain, what do you mean?" He said: "I will tell you what 
I mean. My wife insisted on going to the dance. I tried my 
level best to get her to desist, but failed to make any impression 
upon her. Some years ago she and my fifteen-year-old daugh- 
ter attended a dance in the California city where we were living, 
in my absence, and when I returned my home was lifeless; I 
made inquiries, and found that she had attended a certain dance 
so many nights before and had not been seen in the neighbor- 
hood since. I employed detectives, and they traced my wife 
and my daughter to a house of shame in San Francisco." He 
said: "I secured a divorce on Scriptural grounds. 1 sold my 



CAIN'S WIFE. 2 3 x 

property, disposed of my business, and I have buried myself 
from my social alliances in the States here in this far-away 
country." And the splendid captain stood sobbing like a child. 
You tell me there is no harm in the dance? Then you tell me 
that there is no harm in adultery, no harm in breaking the ties 
that bind the home circle together, no harm in prostitution, no 
harm in bastardy, no harm in breaking the heart of a decent 
man. 

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear 
my voice, and open the door. I will come in to him, and sup 
with him, and he with Me." I don't wonder the Saviour is 
standing on the outside of the heart's door when a carnival of 
lust bears sway on the inside. 

The leading physicians of the world, knowing the details 
of human nature because of their knowledge of physiology and 
anatomy, are in position to state the absolute facts in the case 
in regard to the harmfulness of the dance, and certainly can not 
be in any wise accused of sentimentalism in their Philippics 
against the dance as a form of amusement. 

Dr. Lydston, of Chicago, gives this remarkable statement 
in regard to the dance : 

"Modern society, unfortunately, imposes conditions that 
make sexual excitement without gratification very common. The 
methods of dancing at present in vogue are responsible for this 
to a certain degree. The intimate contact of the sexes that 
dancing permits, associated with the emotional effect of music, 
cannot fail to produce more or less erotism in certain susceptible 
individuals. Pure-mindedness is not always a safeguard, for 
physiologic law is likely to be more potent than psychic purity. 
Sexual stimulation and erotic excitement by no means necessarily 
require sexual thought as their basis. 

"The most unfortunate feature of it all is that society 
offers less inducement to matrimony than formerly. The aver- 
age young man of to-day justly considers matrimony a too ex- 



// 



232 CAIN'S WIFE. 

pensive luxury. In the case of women, the matrimonial prob- 
lem is still more difficult. They are debarred by social custom 
from taking the initiative. Taken all in all, intelligent physi- 
cians and sociologists alike are united in the belief that the ex- 
isting conventional extra-matrimonial relations of the sexes are 
not physiologic, however moral they may be. 

"Literature of a romantic and erotic character is often 
even worse than dancing sometimes is in its pernicious effects 
upon the sexual system. Especially is this true of individuals 
at about the age of puberty. 

"There are ways and means to prevent, or at least limit, 
the injurious effects caused by sexual stimulation without gratifi- 
cation; fornication, however, is not one of them." 

One expert statement is worth ten thousand biased opin- 
ions. That the dance is responsible for the ruination of from 
fifty to sixty thousand young women a year in America, there 
can be no question. Mr. Faulkner, of California, talked per- 
sonally with two hundred fallen women who were inmates of 
California brothels, and he tabulated his investigations as fol- 
lows, giving the cause of the ruination of the girls: 

Dancing-school and ball-rooms 1 63 

Drink given by parents . . . 20 

Willful choice 10 

Poverty and abuse. ........... 7 

200 

He says in his book "From the Bali-Room to Hell": "I 
know a select dancing-school where in a course of three months 
eleven of its victims are brothel inmates to-day." 

I was in an Oklahoma town some years ago, conducting a 
meeting, when a minister came to me early Sunday morning, 
and said: "A horrible thing has occurred in this community. 
A girl committed suicide in a hotel some time between midnight 
and morning." I asked him to tell me the cause of the suicide. 



CAIN'S WIFE. 2 33 

He said: "The girl came in from the country; she is a well- 
known young woman, and has been in the habit of attending 
the Saturday night dances. She attended the dance last night, 
and somebody went with her to the hotel and evidently ruined 
her. She secured poison somewhere during the night." Sun- 
day afternoon I went to the undertaking parlors and looked upon 
the cold body of that young woman. She was about twenty 
years of age, was probably five feet six and a half inches in 
height, would weigh one hundred and forty-five pounds, and 
was finely proportioned; but there she lay, a human sacrifice 
slaughtered on the altars of lust and licentiousness in order that 
the dance might prosper. I offered one hundred dollars reward 
for information leading to the arrest of the guilty wretch who 
wrought her ruin, but I was unable to get any clue. 

My personal friend, Charles N. Crittenton, who knows 
more about work with the fallen womanhood of the world than 
any other person in America, comes out in strong denunciatory 
words against the fashionable dance. He has probably talked 
with thousands of fallen women of America. He has estab- 
lished many homes for the fallen, and I presume from 75 to 90 
per cent of the women whom he has rescued from lives of shame 
were ruined as a direct result of the dance. Once in a while I 
see in connection with my work a woman or a man who makes 
the statement that girls who are ruined as a result of the dance 
would be ruined any way. That statement is not only mali- 
cious, but dishonest. You might as well say that people who 
burn to death in a hotel would have been burned to death any- 
way. I know enough about womanhood to brand any infamous 
insinuation against the honor of the sex as utterly putrid. The 
womanhood of America do not in any wise represent the low 
condition of seeking the ruination of their own honor. 

Some years ago a friend of mine was in a meeting in the 
East. He talked with a young woman whose face was beauti- 
ful and whose form was symmetrical. He said she was of rare 



234 CAIN'S WIFE. 

beauty, but could not see any harm in the dance. He urged 
her to give her heart to God, but she refused. Some time later 
he picked up the New York World and saw a two-column 
picture of the girl, with the terrible story of her death. She 
had attended a fashionable ball and had accompanied a certain 
man to his home, his wife being away at Salamanca, New York, 
with her children. Along about four or five o'clock an officer 
saw a man hanging from a window, clad in his night-shirt. He 
broke the door down, entered the room, turned off the gas 
at the jet, and discovered that a leak in the gas hose was re- 
sponsible for the partial asphyxiation of the man and ultimately 
resulted in the death of the woman. There lay the beautiful 
young woman unconscious on the bed. He turned in a tele- 
phone message, ordering the city physician to send medical help 
at once. Doctors came; they worked over the girl for four 
hours. Finally she opened her big, lustrous, brown eyes, and 
the horrible nightmare of her sin dawned upon her, and her last 
words were: "My God! what have I done?" She was pro- 
nounced dead in a moment. She couldn't see any harm in the 
dance ! 

It seems to me a sad commentary on the personnel of the 
society element of any community that they cannot enjoy an 
evening without spending hours in each other's embrace. There 
is a peculiar hunger and thirst in the human soul which can 
never be satisfied until Jesus Christ has been enthroned in the 
heart. You may drink at the fountains of amusement, you may 
go into sensual gratification, excessive indulgence in liquor, the 
whirl of the theater, race-track gambling, or any other form of 
worldly amusement; but you will find your soul craving some- 
thing which the world cannot give. 

Many years ago, when John Ericsson was visited by Ole 
Bull, the famous violinist, he told the wonderful musician that 
he did not care a thing for music. But Ole Bull insisted that 
he come to his concerts in New York city, and, after some un- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 235 

successful attempts to get his old friend Ericsson to the concerts, 
Ole Bull took his violin to the inventor's shops and explained to 
him some of the wonders of music ; he spoke of the soul of the 
violin, he spoke of the phenomenal beauty of melody, he talked 
of harmonizations, minor and major, and as he talked he tuned 
his marvelous instrument and he began to play; and when he 
touched the strings with his wonderful bow, the workmen left 
their benches and crowded about him by hundreds. John Erics- 
son was standing on the outer circle when that master musician 
seemed to describe the flowers, the dashing mountain streams, the 
snow-capped fathers of the foot-hills, the thunderous breakers on 
the rock-bound coast; and at last the soulful melody of the 
lover wooing the heart of the sweet girl of the Northland ; and 
then it seemed that he heard the wedding-bells, and after a while 
the story in music seemed in its minor strains to tell of the break- 
ing heart-strings, for death had come, and then a soul was 
wafted heavenward by angel bands, and Heaven's gates seemed 
to open and shouts of eternal welcome seemed apparent. When 
finally the musician stopped, the men heaved heavy sighs of re- 
gret, and John Ericsson crowded through the company who 
stood looking in wonderment at Ole Bull; at last the famous 
inventor stood facing his old friend, and the tears were running 
down his cheeks, and he said: "Ole, play on, play on! 1 
never knew what was lacking in my life before. It is this. 
Play on, play on!" 

There are multitudes here to-night who never knew what 
was lacking in their life before. You have been thinking that 
you can satisfy the craving of a hungry soul in the follies and 
foibles and fallacies of worldly amusement. The "Devil's in- 
cubators" hatch the Devil's eggs, and I want you to understand 
to-night that what you need is Jesus Christ in you, the hope of 
Glory. Open wide the heart's door and let Him in, 



236 CAIN'S WIFE. 

"Get acquainted with Jesus, I pray; 
'Tis a banquet His smile to behold. 
Those who trust Him He '11 never betray, 
And His love is far better than gold." 

In closing I want to say to one and all who have kept 
Jesus Christ standing outside the heart's door, that you are 
guilty of base ingratitude. 

Some years ago, in the South, a young man proposed to a 
little mountain girl ; she was probably sixteen years of age, and 
as sweet as June roses. But she had been to the county-seat, 
visiting some relative, and had seen the town boys with their 
hand-me-down suits which retailed at three or four dollars, and 
also saw the celluloid collars and cuffs and other evidences of the 
fashionable life of that little Georgia town; so she said: "John, 
I can't many you; you are not educated." It broke John's 
heart, but it was the making of a magnificent man. He went 
to his little mother, a widow, and told her if she would help 
him, he would get an education, and then he would be in a posi- 
tion to help her. That little mother stood by the boy in his 
splendid ambition to educate himself, and she gave him a home- 
made hair-cut and a home-made suit of clothing and sent him 
away to the little academy or college in the county-seat town to 
secure his education. John, I believe, became janitor. He 
was a rough-looking specimen on the campus, but nobody 
laughed at him when the grades were turned in after the first 
examinations. He did four years' work in three years, and was 
the valedictorian of the graduating class. He went to his home 
some time before the commencement, and told his mother that 
he wanted her to get ready and go to the commencement to hear 
his oration. She told him that she not want to appear before 
the people with her little old black sunbonnet and her linsey 
dress. John told her if she would not go with him, he would 
not go to the commencement. He finally persuaded her, and 
when he reached the building with his mother, he took her down 



CAIN'S WIFE. 237 

to the front seat, and after a while, when he was given his parch- 
ment and his medal for oratorical ability, he stepped down and 
pinned the medal on his mother's breast, and said: "Mother, if 
it had not been for your sacrifice, I could not have received these 
honors, so they really belong to you." They tell me John 
Huckaby is the president of that college to-day. Some years 
ago, when they were building some additional hall or dormitory, 
the corner-stone had this inscription on it: "To the memory of 
a little mountain woman." That woman was the mother of the 
president. 

It is a great thing to see a young man or a young wom- 
an who has character enough to evidence gratitude to the 
mother whose sacrifices and suffering and labor have made an 
education possible. Jesus Christ so loved the world that He 
gladly sacrificed His life in order that we might live forever. 
He was rich, yet for our sake He became poor, that we, through 
His poverty, might be rich. He stands to-night at your heart's 
door, knocking. Are you an ingrate? Are you determined 
to harbor the evils of a wicked world and continue to be a friend 
of the enemy of your soul? or will you say with the poet, "Take 
the world, but give me Jesus"? Jesus sacrificed all and suf- 
fered all for you. Are you willing to sacrifice anything for 
Him? The self-centered life, the life of worldly pleasure, is 
simply the vestibule to Hell. 

There 's a stranger at the door, 

Let Him in! 
He has been there oft before, 

Let Him in! 
Let HJm in, ere He is gone; 
Let Him in, the Holy One, 
Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, 

Let Him in! 



238 CAIN'S WIFE. 

Chapter XVII. 

The Blood of Souls. 

International copyright secured, 1909, French E. Oliver. 

My text is found in the thirty-third chapter of Ezekiel, the 
first nine verses of the chapter: "Again the word of Jehovah 
came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy 
people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon the 
land, if the people of the land take a man from among them 
and set him for their watchman; if when he seeth the sword 
come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people ; 
then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not 
warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall 
be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, 
and took not warning ; his blood shall be upon him ; whereas if 
he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul. But 
if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, 
and the people be not warned ; if the sword come and take any 
person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but 
his blood will I require at the watchman's hand. So thou, O 
son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Is- 
rael; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and give 
them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, O 
wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to 
warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his 
iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Neverthe- 
less, if thou warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it ; if he 
do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou 
hast delivered thy soul." 

These words form perhaps the most important warning to 



CAIN'S WIFE. 239 

the Church of God and to the individual Christian ever given. 
The first section or' the text deals with a military law which 
establishes the integrity of the city by trusting the patriotism and 
honor of the watchman, who is placed upon the wall with in- 
structions to blow the trumpet at the approach of the enemy, 
and his life for his service ; if he, like the traitorous Greek who 
revealed the secret pass at Thermopylae, sells his fellow-citizens 
into the hands of the enemy, he is guilty of the blood of all who 
perish! Such treachery on the part of the watchman was a 
crime punishable with death, and is to-day so considered by all 
governments of the world. If any man in Ezekiel's day heard 
the watchman sound the warning, and he refused to heed the 
trumpet-blast and with foolhardiness rushed into danger, his 
blood was upon his own head. 

The spiritual application of this strong and rigid military 
law binds eternal responsibility to every professing Christian, 
and we discover, in the light of these fearful words, that God 
has set us as watchmen with instructions to give the wicked 
warning from His mouth. If we do not tell the wicked that he 
shall surely die, and urge him to flee for refuge to Jesus, he 
shall die in his iniquity; but "his blood will I require at thy 
hand." God's eternal pronunciamenio ! Oh, the judgment! 
Oh, eternity! 

I have no charge to bring against the people of this or any 
community because of a failure to manifest concern in times of 
physical distress. When the tidal wave swept fifteen thousand 
people into the Gulf of Mexico from Galveston Island, special 
trains were sent carrying provisions and raiment to the people 
deprived of their support and loved ones. When the earth- 
quake shook San Francisco and dynamite and fire laid waste the 
great metropolis of the Pacific, the nation responded with mil- 
lions of dollars in cash, besides millions of dollars' worth of pro- 
visions and clothing for the people who were left in need. When 
the earthquake destroyed the cities of Sicily, when the historic 



2 4 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

Scylla and Charybdis testified to the power of the terrific seismic 
disturbances, the American nation sent almost a million dollars 
in money, and ordered the battleships to carry hundreds of 
thousands of rations to the starving people of that region. The 
people manifest concern in times of physical distress. That 
spark of interest in suffering humanity is the best thing saved 
from the wreck of the human race in the Garden of Eden. The 
fires of perdition burned almost everything good out of the 
human heart. That special interest which is easily found in the 
heart of the wicked as well as in the heart of the righteous says 
in no uncertain language of the human race, "The hand that 
made us is divine." 

Some years ago, when I was conducting the first union 
meetings ever held in Alaska, I had returned from a hunting- 
trip on the mainland some fifteen miles from Juneau, after we 
had closed our meeting in that little city. When I returned to 
Juneau, I found the friends had planned a banquet in our honor, 
which I personally appreciated. The morning dawned; the 
banquet was to be held in the great building where the meeting 
had been conducted. A friend of mine came to see me early, 
and said: "A terrible wreck has occurred just off Douglas 
Island ; the steamship Islander has gone down, and from sixty ta 
eighty lives are lost. What will we do about the banquet?" 
I replied. "We will call it off immediately." I soon after- 
waid learned that the rescue-boat Flossie had gone to the scene 
cf the wreck and was to reach Juneau at about ten o'clock, 
bringing as many of the bodies of the people who had been 
drowned, also as many of the passengers who had been saved, 
as possible. Juneau practically turned out en masse; business 
was suspended. I saw gamblers, saloon-keepers, red-nosed bums, 
business men, noble Christian women, and the wrecks of woman- 
hood lining the docks, evidencing their interest in the sorrowing 
multitudes which came slowly down the gang-plank of the little 
rescue-boat. The crew of the Islander had left Skagway in a 



CAIN'S WIFE. 241 

drunken condition; the boat ran into the rocks, the boiler ex- 
ploded, and the great ship doubled up like a pocket-knife and 
went down in perhaps six hundred to eight hundred feet of ice- 
water. Speaking of buried treasures, I know where a half- 
million dollars in gold-dust and nuggets lie, and in all security. 
The avaricious hand of man may wrench the gold or silver from 
the pockets of penury and want, but its cruel hand is not long 
enough to reach the buried treasure of the inland channel off 
Douglas Island, Alaska. I saw a man coming down the gang- 
plank from the rescue-boat with a blanket wrapped around him ; 
he had no time to secure his clothing. I stepped out, ex- 
tended my hand, and said: "My friend, may I be of any 
service to you?" The man seemed not to see my extended 
hand, for he threw his arms about my neck and wept like a 
child, while he told me the story of the death of his wife, which 
had occurred in the darkness of that cold August morning in 
sight of the glacier-capped mountains of the frigid Northland. 
I felt my heart ache and my eyes bedim with tears ; it was no 
effort for me to weep with the man who wept. It seemed to 
me that a brother was in distress. A woman came down the 
gang-plank a moment later, and I stepped forward and asked 
her if I could be of any service. She replied: "Nobody can 
help me ; my husband and my little babe were drowned, and I 
have been unable to find their bodies." Her story of distress 
was as pathetic as anything I have ever heard. I saw men 
and women from the best homes of Juneau step forward and 
offer to total strangers the use of their homes. The banquet- 
hall became a temporary hospital. The citizenship of Juneau, 
there in that beautiful little city which nestles at the base of a 
grand old snow-capped mountain peak, one and all seemed 
determined to evidence concern commensurate with the tide of 
infinite sorrow which had brought death to scores of fellow 
human beings. I delight to pay tribute to the hospitality and 
tender-heartedness shown by the people of Juneau in the summer 



242 CAIN'S WIFE. 

of 1901. If an emergency arose in this community, I am posi- 
tive I could raise any amount of money necessary to supply the 
need. 

But the trouble is not physical distress at present ; it is spir- 
itual distress. Men and women, boys and girls, are under the 
curse of broken law. You associate with them year after year. 
You talk about pandemics, endemics, epidemics ; you talk of pol- 
itics, the feasibility of prohibition, the necessity of the gold stand- 
ard, or the importance of gripping corporate greed, and the re- 
duction of passenger rates and freight rates; the conversations 
range over fields of generalities where nonsense and wickedness 
contaminate with malodorous incense the journey of life. How 
seldom do the conversations in places of business, banks, law 
offices, school-rooms, parlors — yea, the very churches of God, 
turn toward the personal salvation of the lost! Many a time 
the preacher will preach a solid year in his church and never 
give a personal invitation to a sinner to repent. There are 
mothers and fathers all over the country who profess to be in 
the ark of salvation, yet who stand as idle as a painted ship up- 
on a painted ocean, or, like the everlasting hills, when you try 
to get them to plead with their own children to repent and 
serve God. 

My friend Billy Sunday, some years ago, left a tent in one 
of the towns of Illinois with a young man. They stood at last 
on the street corner, and Billy said: "Have you given your 
heart to God?" The young man said, "No." Billy asked: 
"Are your parents Christians?" The young man replied: "1 
don't know; my father is a steward in the First Methodist 
Church, my mother is president of the Ladies' Aid Society in 
the same church, and I have a sister who is president of the Ep- 
worth League in that church, but, to save my life, I don't know 
whether they are Christians or not." Brother Sunday asked 
the young man if his father or mother or sister had ever shown 
any religious life in the home, either at the family altar or in 



CAIN'S WIFE. 243 

private prayer, or in asking the blessing at the table. The 
young man said: "Mr. Sunday, so long as I can remember 
neither my father nor mother nor sister have ever said a word 
to me about my soul's salvation. Do you believe they think I 
am lost?" Billy Sunday has said many a time in my hearing: 
"The young man's question staggered me!" I don't wonder 
at it. When you find mothers and fathers so criminally indif- 
ferent to the salvation of their loved ones that they will allow a 
boy to grow up to manhood in the home and never once ask him 
to get right with God, you can count on it that the Devil owns 
that household from curbstone to alley, from parlor to woodshed, 
from head-gear to shoe-sole. Suppose I walk down one of your 
streets and I discover a man in an out-of-the-way place who had 
fallen into a well. I make no effort to get him out, nor do I 
in any wise give a warning to any of his friends, describing his 
peril. According to the laws of the land, if I were guilty of 
such criminal indifference, I could be at least tried for man- 
slaughter. When you pass the needy by with quickened pace, 
and allow them to drift on to the sea of incertitude and wreck 
on the rocks of iniquity, according to the Word of the living 
God, you are guilty of the blood of souls ! Good Lord, deliver 
us! ("Amens!") The cause of the damnation of thousands is 
the indifference of the people who profess to be children of God. 
I believe most mothers can win their children for Christ if they 
will manifest concern. I believe most wives can win their hus- 
bands for Christ if they will get out of their consummate indif- 
ference into a consuming passion for the salvation of their loved 
ones. I believe most business men can win their clerks if they 
will set the right example before them and lift up Christ in their 
places of business. i 1 

Some years ago, when I was conducting a meeting in one 
of the large Western cities, the building was crowded and the 
only available seat was at the front; a man had vacated it for 
the accommodation of a well-known society leader, who came 



244 CAIN'S WIFE. 

to the front hoping to find a seat. During the after-meeting 1 
spoke to a retired ranchman and miner from Wyoming, an old 
Virginian, who had struck it rich in the great West. I said: 
"Mr. Leifer, I want you to enlist for the Saviour to-night. He 
turned to me with splendid appreciation, and said: "Brother 
Oliver, I have served the Devil sixty years, and I feel convinced 
that it is time for me lo get right with God." Then, turn- 
ing to his wife, he said: "Come on, Delia, and let us go to- 
gether." I noticed when they reached the front seat there was 
considerable agitation manifested on the part of the society wom- 
an whom I mentioned a few minutes ago; I learned later that 
they were close friends. Feeling impressed to speak with her, I 
finally engaged her in conversation about her spiritual welfare. 
She made no claim to Christianity ; she said she was somewhat 
skeptical, and if she had any religion at all, she was a Unitarian. 
And I want to say right here that I have more respect for the 
old red-nosed infidel than I have for the nickel-plated Unitarian! 
If a man is going to be my enemy, I don't want him to pose as 
my friend: if he will come out in the open and draw his line, I 
will know on what side to find him. Unitarianism pretends to 
be a Christian theology, but I want to say to you this morning 
that it is a bastard theology, conceived out of wedlock; the 
parents of Unitarianism have never wedded, and never will; 
"ethical culture" and infidelity can never become one flesh 
according to the laws of Almighty God. Any amount of peo- 
ple come chattering around to me, telling me that Emerson, and 
Longfellow, and Edward Everett Hale, and William Taft, and 
some other people, accepted Unitarianism as a theology, and I 
want to add to the list the Devil, for he has created it as 
a theology. And I want to say to you that an Emerson, a 
Longfellow, a Hale, a Taft, or any other man who denies the 
Blood of the Covenant, who will trample under unhallowed 
feet the Son of God, and make Him out a liar, an impostor, and 
an illegitimate son of a reprehensible Jewish peasant, will sink 



CAIN'S WIFE. 245 

five hundred fathoms into Hell if death claimed or claims him 
in his impenitence; and I want that to soak in. (Applause. 
Tremendous sensation.) I spoke to the society woman about 
her eternal hope. She had none. When I urged her to repent, 
she was certainly thinking about it ; and when I started to leave 
her, she said, "Wait a moment," and I did. She then told me 
that although she had lived eight years in that city and many of 
her friends were church members, that while she had attended 
the theater, the card party, and dances with them, never once 
had any person before that evening said a word to her about 
where she would spend eternity. That is a record of the super- 
ficial bunch who are hibernating in the camps of Israel, forgetful 
that God declares that He will separate the sheep from the 
goats. I had the pleasure of leading that lady to Christ, and she 
she became one of the finest workers I have ever known ; but 
eight years of fellowship with the idle, indifferent church mem- 
bers of that city had never made an impression «upon her soul 
that she was lost or in need of salvation. I believe the idle 
church member will bewail and bemoan his criminal indiffer- 
ence when it is too late. 

Some years ago, in one of the educational institutions of 
our country, a young man who was studying for the ministry 
had as a room-mate a personal friend from Florida who was 
studying in the scientific departments of the institution. Four 
years of school life together at last came to an end. They 
stood at the station to separate. The young man from Florida, 
who was not a professing Christian, said to his friend, the young 
minister: "Wilbur, why is it you have never said a word to 
me about my soul's salvation?" The young nvnister said that 
if his friend had struck him with his fist, he could not have sur- 
prised him half so much; and he replied: "Why, Tarbell, I 
never thought you cared to talk about it." The young man 
was grieved; he said: "Mother and myself decided on this 
institution because you were to study for the ministry here, and 



246 CAIN'S WIFE. 

my mother said, 'He will lead you to Christ ; you can room to- 
gether, and it will be just the place for you.' And besides that, 
many a night I have lain awake for hours wishing you would 
turn and speak to me about my soul." My friend, Dr. C, 
tried to win the young man on the platform of the station ; but 
four years of indifference had built a wall between them. The 
young man returned to Florida, and in less than three months 
yellow fever had swept him into eternity ! The minister has told 
that sad story in many cities of our country and has said repeat- 
edly that it is the saddest page from his past history. 

I wonder how many people there are in this audience who 
by indifference have allowed their friends and loved ones to slip 
past them into the charnel-house of the dead without God and 
without hope ! I am positive the unsaved of the average com- 
munity will turn when you warn them; when you put the re- 
sponsibility upon their own heads, they will understand the im- 
portance of making their peace calling and election sure. 

Some years ago, in one of the cities of Illinois, a minister 
felt impressed to speak with a leading business man. After 
consultation and prayer with a ministerial friend, he went to 
the home of the business man, who was moral, wealthy, and so- 
cially prominent. The business man saw the minister approach- 
ing the home, and he walked down toward the gate, gripped his 
hand, and said: "Doctor, I am glad to see you this morning. 
I have been wishing all morning you would come." The Spirit 
of God never puts a burden for the salvation of some person 
upon your soul but that He puts conviction into the heart of the 
person in question, He prepares the way before you. They 
went into the parlor, and the wife of the business man, who was 
a Christian, had the supreme pleasure of seeing her husband con- 
verted that morning. Some time later, perhaps two months, 
the business man was stricken with a fatal disease. The minis- 
ter was at his bedside not long before the end came ; Ke took the 
minister's hand and gripped it, and said: "Doctor, I am so 



CAIN'S WIFE. 247 

glad you came that day and led me to Christ. If you had not, 
I would be dying to-day without hope." Jf you stand at the 
bedaide of some friend who will pay tribute to your fidelity as 
that dying man did to his friend, you will understand the im- 
portance of carrying the message, the message of hope to the 
perishing. 

Some years ago, in one of the cities of Iowa, diphtheria 
carried sixty children into eternity ; they were mostly from irre- 
ligious homes. A little girl in the home of a skeptic was taken 
with the fatal disease, and she began to plead with her father 
to send for the pastor of the Presbyterian church. Her mother 
had been a member of that church ; she had died a year before, 
and the little girl had been a regular attendant at the Sunday- 
school up to the time of her mother's death, but had not been so 
regular since that sad event had occurred. Her father cared 
nothing about the Sunday-school, the Church, or his Creator. 
When the little girl plead with him to send for the minister, he 
said with considerable spirit that he would not ask any preacher 
into his home. A few days passed and the child grew weaker. 
One evening, when the physician stood close at hand, the little 
child plead with her father again to send for the minister, but 
he refused as usual, and said: "Here is the physician; you 
can talk with him." The little child grieved because of her 
disappointment, and lay there upon her death-bed, weeping. 
The physician was justly indignant. Fie called the infidel 
father to one side, and said to him: "It is my opinion that you 
will be glad to give all you possess to-morrow morning for the 
privilege of granting the slightest request of your little girl." 
The infidel replied: "Doctor, is it that bad?" The doctor 
replied: "I am practically certain that she cannot live through- 
out the night." The man then turned to his son, who likewise 
was a skeptic, and ordered him to go at once for the minister. 
The minister came at length, and stayed until about midnight, 
but finally he arose to leave. The infidel urged him to stay 



248 CAIN'S WIFE. 

longer. The little girl, who had been lying in a comatose con- 
dition, opened her eyes, smiled when she saw the preacher, and 
he stepped to the bedside and asked her what she wanted him 
to talk about. She said: "I want you to talk about Heaven." 
He told her he was sure her mother was waiting in Heaven and 
would welcome her when she reached the end of life's journey. 
He assured her that in Heaven there is no sickness, no suffering, 
no sorrow, no funerals, no tears, no grief. The little girl smiled, 
and said: "I will soon be with my mother." The minister 
replied: "Mabel, you are not going to leave us; you are going 
to get well, aren't you?" She said: "No, I am not going to 
get well ; I am going to leave you, and I haven't much time to 
stay." The old infidel father stepped up to the bedside, weep- 
ing, and said: "Mabel, don't talk like that; it would break 
my heart if you were to leave me." Then he urged the minis- 
ter to change the conversation. The little child closed her eyes 
finally, and the minister left, saying, as he did so, to the child's 
father: "She seems to be resting comfortably; perhaps she is 
improving." The father of the little girl said the minister cer- 
tainly could not have gotten more than three blocks from the 
home when the child, with strange animation for one so weak, 
shuddered and raised herself in the bed and called him to the 
bedside. He said he took her in his arms, and she clasped her 
arms about his neck and said: "Oh, papa, don't let my feet 
get in the water! it is so cold here." The infidel told the little 
girl that she was not anywhere near the water, that she was in 
his arms, but she shuddered again and looked around in won- 
derment, and she said: "Papa, are you here?" She seemed 
to have reached a point between physical and spiritual existence 
which made it impossible for her father to approach. He said : 
"You are in your father's arms; can't you hear his heart beat?" 
The little girl released her clasp from about his neck and reached 
her hands out toward her living hope, and she said: "Papa, 
you needn't carry me over the river ; yonder comes mamma and 



CAIN'S WIFE. 249 

Jesus and the angels, and they will carry me over the river," 
and "they bore her away on their snowy wings, to their immortal 
home." The infidel put the child upon the bed, turned, and 
urged the boy to proceed at once to the home of the minister and 
bring him back. I want to ask in passing, Why didn't the 
father send for some old red-nosed cussing infidel? I will tell 
you why. He wanted some hope, some comfort, some consola- 
tion, which all the infidels On earth and in hell cannot give. The 
minister returned; the infidel met him, and evidenced his great 
contrition of heart. He said: "Doctor, you buried my wife 
a year ago, and this child, about all that made life worth while, 
is dead, and I can't understand it." The minister replied : "I 
cannot understand it, but I am sure your wife and your little 
daughter are together in a better world than this." The infi- 
del said: "Doctor, if there is such a place as Heaven, 1 know 
they are there. Can you tell a man how to take the step that 
will get him right with God and on his way to meet his loved 
ones?" They knelt in prayer, and there, with his hand on the 
body of the little child, the wicked father in true repentance met 
the great Burden-bearer, who gave him the touch of eternal life, 
forgiveness of sins. My friend Billy Sunday related this inci- 
dent in the Iowa city where the infidel lived, and the man 
stepped down to the minister and said: "That story is true; 
God had to break my heart before I was willing to look up." 
I related the incident in Oklahoma some years ago; a woman 
came forward weeping, and said: "Mr. Oliver, I am Mrs. 
Pelton's sister; she was a godly woman. The infidel's son 
whom you mentioned has become a Christian and is in religious 
work in New York city." When God can get people together 
and speak the word, the wicked repent and the Christian delivers 
his own soul ; but if you fail to go and warn the wicked and the 



2 5 o CAIN'S WIFE. 

wicked dies in his sins, God says, "His blood will I require at 
Thy hand!" 

"Over the river, faces I see, 
Fair as the morning, looking for me, 
Free from their sorrow, grief, and despair, 
Waiting and watching patiently there. 

"Looking this way, yes, looking this way, 
Loved ones in Glory, looking this way. 
Free from their sorrow, grief, and despair, 
Waiting and watching patiently there. 

"Sweet little darling, light of the home, 
Looking for someone, beckoning 'Come!* 
Sweet as a sunbeam, pure as the dew, 
Lovingly calling, mother, for you." 



CAIN'S WIFE. 251 

THE CONVERSION OF A TOWN. 
(From Jewell County (Kas.) Republican, Feb. 14, 1908.) 

One of the greatest revival meetings since the day of Pen- 
tecost is in progress at Mankato. The meeting is conducted by 
Dr. French Oliver. Mankato has always been a very worldly 
town. The prominent people of the town have disregarded 
Christian teaching and their sons and daughters followed their 
lead. The drug stores sold whisky and many of the influential 
men drank it. Sunday was a day for pleasure and gaiety. The 
card-table was popular with men and women. A magnificent 
new opera-house was built, but the churches struggled and lan- 
guished. Worst of all, bitter personal feuds tore up the town. 
The newspapers had a $5,000 libel suit on the docket, and 
professional men had come to blows on the street. But to-day 
we have a new Mankato. Old things have passed away and 
all things have become new. The druggist has surrendered his 
permit, the card-table has been abandoned, the libel suit has 
been dismissed, each side publicly confessing his part of the 
wrong; enemies have sought and granted forgiveness; bankers, 
lawyers, editors, doctors, county officials, merchants, mechanics, 
big stockmen, farmers, foot-ball teams, life-long skeptics, and 
agnostics, every member of the high school save one, men, 
women, and children by the hundreds, have knelt together at 
the altar and publicly promised to take the Lord Jesus Christ 
as their personal Saviour. 

The total number of conversions up to this writing is about 
eight hundred. 

Mankato built a big tabernacle and promised Dr. Oliver 
three voluntary collections as compensation for his services, he 
to pay his own singer and pianist. Senator Hays White pre- 



252 CAIN'S WIFE. 

sented the matter to the great congregation Sunday morning and 
afternoon, and the response was an inundation. When it was 
known that Jewell had raised $900 for meetings, some of the 
Mankato brethren said with a sigh, that under no conceivable 
condition could $300 be raised in that town for religious pur- 
poses. But they didn't know their own town, nor their own 
neighbors. The response for money was a spontaneous giving 
in cash until $ 1 ,809 had been piled up on the tables. When the 
evangelist was told what had been done in the two collections, 
he refused to allow the third one to be taken. He said such a 
record as that had never before been made in a town the size of 
Mankato (population about 1 ,000) in the United States or in 
the world — 800 conversions and $ 1 ,809 contribution. Such 
heavy giving lays the evangelist open to the charge of being out 
for the money, and some people who never do anything for the 
world themselves harp much on that string ; but giving is one of 
the first impulses of converted people, and you cannot stop or 
slay them until they have given some suitable expression to their 
gratitude. The Mankato folks seemed to think they had not 
paid the preachers very well in the past and they would make 
up for twenty or thirty years' delinquency while they were at it. 
They also say that the old churches will have to be pulled down 
and new ones built, and that the pastors who have so long 
worked in such stony ground will be better paid than ever; 
before. 

Last Sunday night's meeting was one of the greatest of the 
series. Fully two thousand people were packed in the taber- 
nacle. The preacher was hoarse and had the grip. His theme 
was "The Unpardonable Sin." Dr. Oliver does not plead with 
men until sweat streams down his face. He is as calm as a 
school-teacher demonstrating a theorem in geometry. He does 
not heat his blood nor show a trace of excitement. All his 
statements are deliberate, clear-cut, and searching. Oliver 
stands like a statue and seldom smiles; and while all the audi- 



CAIN'S WIFE. 253 

ence is on fire with enthusiasm, he stands like a man in evening 
attire who is holding a formal reception. 

We never saw so much cheering in a religious meeting. 
It seemed as if the crowd must let off steam in some way to pre- 
vent an explosion. They cheer the preacher and waves of cheer 
sweep the audience, starting in many different sections, as well- 
known men made their decisions. The bulk of workers were 
converts. You would see a man being plead with and stub- 
bornly refusing to yield or move, and in another hour you 
might see that same man pleading as if his life depended upon 
it with some of his own friends. 

Denominational lines were no more thought of than were 
the parallels of latitude. In the hotel lobbies, on the streets, 
in the court-house and business places, nothing is talked of but 
the meeting. 

It seems like all great vital, moral issues have to start on 
Kansas soil. Over 80 people were converted at the Sunday 
evening service and 1 1 5 during the day. We have never seen 
deeper feeling or stronger evidence of earnestness and sincerity 
than was there manifested. Faces beamed with joy. Strong 
men could not control their feelings, and tears of joy streamed 
down many faces. We thought Jewell had a wonderful re- 
vival, and it sure did have, but we will have to yield the palm, 
and we take off our hat to the new and better Mankato. 

D. H. Stafford, a wealthy banker of Mankato, has given 
$10,000 for a Y. M. C. A. building, and more than $10,000 
has been raised as an equipment fund and the current expenses 
of the institution. This makes a great monument to perpetuate 
the memory of th» great revival of 1 908. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



